One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Time in Office

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated 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 taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Policies

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."

Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea 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 cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty