Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Government Service

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. Although many VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.

The Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."

Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to function, actually."

Business Interests

Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty