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

The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Decisions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."

But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush additionally had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."

Commercial Ties

Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty