One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Time in Office

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".

Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion 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 participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Policies

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."

Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling 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 position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed 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 the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a nice way to function, actually."

Business Interests

Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty