One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Government Service

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".

Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.

Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Actions

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."

Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices 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 not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, incompetence, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to work, actually."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty