One-time VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Influential Government Service

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view today."

However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."

Business Interests

Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty