The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential holders of that position in American history. While many VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, 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 shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
