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

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Policies

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."

Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to work, in fact."

Business Interests

Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty