Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Impactful Political Career

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".

Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.

The Post-9/11 Era

Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.

Cheney stated the assaults changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Decisions

He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now."

But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed 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 objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators 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 deserve a lot of recognition."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating 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: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a effective way to function, actually."

Corporate Connections

Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty