Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Impactful Political Career

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."

Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary while military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty