Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Influential Political Career

The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".

Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Aftermath of 9/11

At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command 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 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.

Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Disputed Policies

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."

However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."

Broader Context

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's face that each person had to step on.

Investigation Approaches

But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.

Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."

Public Persona

Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."

Business Interests

Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty