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

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".

Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.

The Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Actions

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."

Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth substantial sums.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty