Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Powerful Time in Office

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant holders of that position in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.

The Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Policies

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."

Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."

Business Interests

Debate over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty