Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Impactful Time in Office

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that position in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."

However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the individuals who murdered 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 assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to work, actually."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.

It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty