One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Government Service

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that position in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.

A Period Following the Attacks

At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Policies

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it now."

But even then, there were contrary opinions 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 position. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.

Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to 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 pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty