One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Impactful Government Service

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of that office in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.

Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Policies

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."

Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were either thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty