One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Time in Office

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".

Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

In charge of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Actions

He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."

But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution 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 saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty