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

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "real president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture 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 earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power 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 evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty