The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
