One-time VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Impactful Government Service

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".

Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.

The Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Actions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."

Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, 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 lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a nice way to operate, actually."

Business Interests

Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty