Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Political Career

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".

Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Actions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I believe it today."

However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty