Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Impactful Time in Office

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".

Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

The Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.

Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture 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 deserve a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a nice way to function, in fact."

Business Interests

Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty