Former VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Time in Office

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".

Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.

Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Decisions

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."

However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators 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 earn a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a nice way to function, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.

It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty