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

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "true president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Policies

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."

However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing 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: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty