The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
