One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Impactful Time in Office

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary 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 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."

However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals 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 earn a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."

Business Interests

Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals valued at substantial sums.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty