The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although many VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, 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 agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
