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

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".

Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a faction 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 answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.

Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Decisions

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view now."

However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to work, actually."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

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

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty