Ex- VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Impactful Political Career

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.

Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Actions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I hold that view today."

However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty