Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Powerful Time in Office

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful holders of that position in US history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney held substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Policies

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."

Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked 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 participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power 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 malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a effective way to work, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty