Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Impactful Time in Office

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".

Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.

Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Decisions

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it today."

However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty