One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Impactful Time in Office

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of that office in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "actual president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.

A Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Actions

He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."

However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume 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 background that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty