The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion 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 taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
