One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Influential Government Service

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of that office in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.

A Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Actions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."

However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to work, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty