One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Government Service

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.

Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Actions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."

But even then, 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 area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty