Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Impactful Political Career

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".

Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.

Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."

Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."

Business Interests

Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty