One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Political Career

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."

However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty