Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Government Service

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that position in American history. Although countless second-in-commands were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it today."

However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty