Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Government Service

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that position in American history. Although countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".

Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.

The Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Policies

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."

However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, 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 background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."

Business Interests

Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty