Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Impactful Government Service

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Policies

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it today."

However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing 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: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty