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

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".

Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.

A Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Policies

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a effective way to function, actually."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty