Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Time in Office

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Policies

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."

However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a nice way to work, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty