Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Powerful Government Service

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.

Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Decisions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."

But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing 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: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."

Business Interests

Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty