Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Impactful Political Career

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".

Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.

The Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."

However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume 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 nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a effective way to function, actually."

Business Interests

Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty