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

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of that office in American history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".

Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Policies

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."

But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing 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 recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty