Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Impactful Time in Office

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of that office in American history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "true president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.

Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Policies

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it now."

However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty