The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design 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 vehement behind attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
