Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Influential Political Career

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".

Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.

Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Policies

He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."

But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.

Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.

Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed monikers 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 journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."

Business Interests

Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty