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

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of that office in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.

Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Actions

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."

Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty