One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Political Career

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.

The Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.

Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, 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 lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."

However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in labels 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 manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty