Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Time in Office

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".

Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Policies

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."

Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."

Business Interests

Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm 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 totaling more than $20m|twenty