Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Political Career

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".

Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention 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 taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.

Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."

Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."

Business Interests

Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty