The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary 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 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both thin or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on 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 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
