Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Influential Time in Office

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Although many VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Actions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."

Yet 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 area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty