Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Impactful Time in Office

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".

Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.

Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Policies

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."

Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty