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

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "true president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.

The Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Policies

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."

Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty