Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Influential Time in Office

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."

However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed 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 mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either weak or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force 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 evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty