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

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Policies

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it today."

However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, 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 remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. While he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty