One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Influential Time in Office

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas many VPs were confined to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".

Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Policies

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."

Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level 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 role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty