One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Powerful Government Service

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that position in US history. Although countless second-in-commands were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.

Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Actions

He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."

But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.

Interrogation Methods

However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a nice way to operate, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty