Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Influential Political Career

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".

Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.

Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it today."

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 dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."

Business Interests

Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum 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 awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty