One-time 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 among the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion 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 attending a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented 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.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book 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 corner that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his previous salary while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty