Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Time in Office

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in American history. Although numerous VPs were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".

Bush resented this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The 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 response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Policies

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."

Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a effective way to operate, actually."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. Although 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 largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty