The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 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."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
