Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Time in Office

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.

A Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.

Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Policies

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."

But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a effective way to function, in fact."

Business Interests

Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty