One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Impactful Political Career

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. While countless VPs were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".

Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Decisions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."

Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty