One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Government Service

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".

Bush resented this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."

But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."

Business Interests

Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty