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

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.

The Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Actions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, 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 background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."

Business Interests

Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty