Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Impactful Political Career

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".

Bush resented this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.

Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."

Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to 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 participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist'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 malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to work, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty