Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Government Service

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas many VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

The Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.

Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Actions

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."

But even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a effective way to work, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

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

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty