Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Government Service

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Although many VPs were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "real president".

Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.

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 terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.

Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."

But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling substantial sums.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm grew from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty