The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a nice way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
