One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Impactful Government Service

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "true president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.

Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Policies

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."

However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."

Business Interests

Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, 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 granted US deals worth billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty