Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Influential Government Service

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that position in American history. Whereas many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a group of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary 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 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Actions

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."

However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 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."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to work, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty