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

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless VPs were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".

Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.

The Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance presently."

Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a effective way to function, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty