One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Impactful Government Service

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".

Bush resented this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.

Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Decisions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."

However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."

Business Interests

Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty