Former VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Powerful Time in Office

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Although countless VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".

Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Actions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."

However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."

Business Interests

Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty