Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Government Service

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "actual president".

Bush resented this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Actions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."

However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty