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

The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that position in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".

Bush resented that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Actions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."

Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that each person had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Persona

Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.

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