Former VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Impactful Time in Office

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of that position in US history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.

Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."

However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a effective way to function, in fact."

Business Interests

Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty