Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Impactful Government Service

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.

Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Policies

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."

But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."

Business Interests

Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty