Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Impactful Political Career

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "true president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.

Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Actions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty