Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Time in Office

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.

A Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."

However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a effective way to work, actually."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty