Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Political Career

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".

Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Actions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."

Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a nice way to work, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty