Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Time in Office

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public 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 peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.

Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."

But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty