The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 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. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either weak or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? It's a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
