Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Impactful Political Career

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. Whereas many VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.

A Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it today."

However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier 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 position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that each person had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."

Business Interests

Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.

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