The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant holders of that position in American history. Whereas many VPs were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
