One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Political Career

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".

Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the government building.

Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Policies

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."

However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force 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 evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary while military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty