Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Government Service

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas countless VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".

Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

A Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."

But even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure 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 shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

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

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty