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

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.

A Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.

Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Actions

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."

However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader 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 reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a nice way to work, actually."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty