Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Time in Office

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".

Bush resented that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.

A Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.

Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Decisions

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."

However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a effective way to function, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty