One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Political Career

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Policies

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."

Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."

Business Interests

Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty