Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Time in Office

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".

Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, 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 misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I hold that view today."

Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the individuals who murdered 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 praise."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise 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 biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty