The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a nice way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
