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

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".

Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.

Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Actions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance presently."

Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join 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 executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty