Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Government Service

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "true president".

Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

The Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.

Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Policies

He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."

But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution 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, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty