The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless VPs were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who killed 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 recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, 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 nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
