The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of that position in US history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
