Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Political Career

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".

Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.

Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Actions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."

However even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty