One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Impactful Political Career

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".

Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.

A Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense 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. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.

Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including 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, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Actions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."

But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to apprehend the individuals 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 credit."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? It's a nice way to work, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty