Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Time in Office

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of that office in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".

Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.

The Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to work, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty