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

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. While many VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".

Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Decisions

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."

However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."

Business Interests

Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty