Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Influential Government Service

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.

The Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Decisions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."

Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, 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 operates invisibly come out of his lair? This represents a nice way to function, actually."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty