Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Government Service

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.

Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Policies

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."

But even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."

Business Interests

Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty