Former VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Government Service

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of that position in US history. While many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

The Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.

Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Policies

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."

Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a document setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty