Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Government Service

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".

Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.

Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Policies

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."

However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty