Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Impactful Time in Office

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Policies

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed 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 correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."

However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that each person had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 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 recognition."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."

Business Interests

Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty