Ex- VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Time in Office

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While many second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer 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. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Decisions

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."

Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty