Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Political Career

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While countless VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."

However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to function, actually."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.

It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty