Former VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Influential Government Service

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Actions

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."

Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the individuals 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 earn a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a effective way to work, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty