One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Powerful Government Service

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. While many vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Policies

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."

Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."

Business Interests

Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty