Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Government Service

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.

The Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Decisions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it today."

Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both thin or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to operate, actually."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty