One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Government Service

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. While numerous VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".

Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Policies

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."

But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced 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 surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that each person had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."

Business Interests

Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty