Former VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Influential Time in Office

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.

Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."

However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty