Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Influential Political Career

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.

The Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.

Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."

However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."

Business Interests

Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, 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 company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty