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

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that position in US history. While many VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".

Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.

Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Policies

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."

But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.

It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty