One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Influential Time in Office

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential occupants of that position in US history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".

Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Policies

He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it today."

However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."

Business Interests

Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

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

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty