One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Impactful Government Service

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that office in American history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Policies

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."

Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked 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 announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."

Business Interests

Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

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

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty