Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Impactful Political Career

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".

Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."

Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to work, actually."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty