One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Impactful Government Service

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."

But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty