Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Impactful Political Career

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".

Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed 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 September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.

Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together 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 no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Actions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."

However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a effective way to operate, actually."

Business Interests

Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty