Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Government Service

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. While many second-in-commands were limited to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".

Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize 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 Actions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."

Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume 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 background that operates invisibly come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty