Ex- VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Influential Political Career

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".

Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Policies

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."

But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a effective way to function, actually."

Business Interests

Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty