One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Political Career

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of that position in US history. While many second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.

Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Policies

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."

But even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a effective way to operate, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty