Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Government Service

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Although many VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.

The Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion 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 taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Policies

He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it 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 government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his father, 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 image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty