The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill 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 surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 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."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
