Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Government Service

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While many VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".

Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."

But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either weak or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist'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 lair? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty