Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Influential Government Service

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in American history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.

Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become focused 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 invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."

Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty