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

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".

Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion 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 participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.

Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Actions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."

But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."

Business Interests

Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty