The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
