One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Impactful Political Career

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".

Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.

The Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Decisions

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."

Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker'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 background that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty