The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do back 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 mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
