One-time VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Government Service

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although many VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "real president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated 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 taking part in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Policies

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it now."

But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."

Business Interests

Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty