Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Time in Office

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.

The Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Actions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."

However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty