Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Powerful Time in Office

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."

Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "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, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

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

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty