Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Government Service

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although many VPs were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.

A Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Policies

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."

However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker'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 hole? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."

Business Interests

Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.

It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty