Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Impactful Time in Office

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "real president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."

But even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty