Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Impactful Time in Office

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that office in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".

Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.

Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Policies

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view today."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both weak or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty