Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Government Service

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."

Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty