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

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary 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 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.

Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Decisions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."

However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that each person had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed monikers 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 directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty