Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Political Career

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Actions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."

Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in 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 treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty