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

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Decisions

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance presently."

However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty