One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Influential Political Career

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".

Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Actions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."

Business Interests

Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty