Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Time in Office

The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that position in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "true president".

Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.

The Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.

Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."

However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.

Questioning Techniques

But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty