Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Impactful Government Service

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of that office in American history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".

Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.

Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Policies

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."

However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios 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 act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."

Business Interests

Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty