Former VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Influential Political Career

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".

Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, 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, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned 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 little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."

Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a effective way to function, actually."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty