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

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".

Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.

Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Actions

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."

But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and torture.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his lair? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty