One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Time in Office

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.

The Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance today."

But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a effective way to function, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, 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 granted US agreements worth substantial sums.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty