Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Powerful Political Career

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".

Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Policies

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."

But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a nice way to work, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty