Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Influential Time in Office

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that position in US history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a group of neo-cons 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 September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.

Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it today."

But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, 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 nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty