One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Government Service

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Policies

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance today."

Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."

Business Interests

Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his previous salary while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty