Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Powerful Political Career

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Policies

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."

However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the firm rose from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty