The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of that position in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief 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. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch 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 deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
