Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Government Service

The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of that office in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".

Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.

The Period Following the Attacks

In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.

Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.

Controversial Actions

He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."

Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."

Broader Context

Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, 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 surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either thin or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."

External Perception

Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."

Corporate Connections

Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.

It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty