Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Time in Office

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Policies

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."

Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a effective way to function, actually."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty