One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Powerful Political Career

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.

Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Actions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."

But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a effective way to work, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty