One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Influential Time in Office

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a group of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Policies

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."

But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? This represents a nice way to work, actually."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty