Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Influential Government Service

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that office in US history. While many vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".

Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.

A Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.

Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Policies

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."

However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either thin or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."

Business Interests

Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty