Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Impactful Political Career

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of that office in US history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".

Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Debated Decisions

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I believe it today."

However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were either thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."

Business Interests

Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty