One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Political Career

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Although countless VPs were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."

However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing 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: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty