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

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".

Bush resented that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.

The Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."

But even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and torture.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty