Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Political Career

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas many VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Decisions

He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."

Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a nice way to work, in fact."

Business Interests

Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty