The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. While countless VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed 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 announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker'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 evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the firm rose from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
