Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Time in Office

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.

Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Policies

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."

Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted 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 Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place 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 is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."

Business Interests

Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.

It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty