One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Impactful Time in Office

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".

Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.

The Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."

However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted 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 Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to work, actually."

Business Interests

Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, notably 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 assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty