Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Powerful Political Career

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."

Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a nice way to work, actually."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty