One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Impactful Time in Office

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of that office in US history. While many VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".

Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Actions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."

Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.

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