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

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. While many VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".

Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.

The Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a group of neo-conservatives 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 response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a effective way to function, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty