Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Powerful Government Service

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.

Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."

But even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."

Business Interests

Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty