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

The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".

Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Post-9/11 Era

At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Disputed Policies

He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."

Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."

Wider Perspective

Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.

Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.

Questioning Techniques

However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.

Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."

Business Interests

Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.

It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty