Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Impactful Time in Office

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of that position in American history. Whereas many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".

Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.

The Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Policies

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."

However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, 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 shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty