One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Time in Office

The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Policies

He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."

But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.

Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."

Public Persona

Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a nice way to work, actually."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty