Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Government Service

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential occupants of that office in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "actual president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Decisions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it presently."

But even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

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

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty