One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Political Career

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".

Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.

A Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.

Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Policies

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith then and I believe it now."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty