Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Political Career

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a group of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.

Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."

But even at the time, there were dissenting voices 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 retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty