One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Time in Office

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".

Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance presently."

Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance 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 additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."

Business Interests

Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty