One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Political Career

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. Although numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Actions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."

Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to work, actually."

Business Interests

Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth multiple billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty