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

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Disputed Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance today."

But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to work, in fact."

Business Interests

Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty