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

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.

Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."

However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to work, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of 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 running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty