Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Impactful Political Career

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of that position in US history. While countless VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "true president".

Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.

Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Actions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."

But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty