Former VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Time in Office

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that position in US history. While countless VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Actions

He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance presently."

However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that each person had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."

Business Interests

Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty