Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Impactful Political Career

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Actions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."

But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a nice way to function, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.

It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty