Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Time in Office

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.

Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view today."

But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, 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 surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty