The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas many VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, 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 come out of his hole? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
