One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Powerful Government Service

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Debated Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."

But even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate analysis 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 requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."

Business Interests

Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty