Former VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Time in Office

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".

Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the assaults changed him, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Policies

He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."

However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."

Business Interests

Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty