Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Impactful Government Service

The late US VP 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 many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th 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 took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Actions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."

However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling substantial sums.

It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty