One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Impactful Time in Office

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of that position in American history. While many VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the government building.

Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Actions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."

But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty