Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Influential Time in Office

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. While many vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".

Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.

Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance now."

But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 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 Persona

Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually."

Business Interests

Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty