Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Influential Time in Office

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of that office in US history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Actions

He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."

However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty