Former VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Impactful Political Career

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential holders of that office in US history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".

Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort 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 expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."

Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."

Business Interests

Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty