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

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful holders of that position in US history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".

Bush disliked that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.

A Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Actions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."

Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a nice way to work, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty