Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Government Service

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary 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 taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.

Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view now."

However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to work, actually."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty