One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Political Career

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".

Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.

Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."

Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that each person had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty