The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation 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 murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
