One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Government Service

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.

A Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Decisions

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith then and I hold that view today."

However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a effective way to operate, actually."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty