Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Influential Government Service

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.

Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Actions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."

However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's face that all visitors had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty