One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Influential Government Service

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. While many VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".

Bush resented this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Policies

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."

However even at the time, there were contrary opinions 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 dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book 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 shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.

It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty