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

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that position in American history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".

Bush resented that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Debated Policies

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."

But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."

Corporate Connections

Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty