One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Powerful Time in Office

The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful holders of that position in American history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".

Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

A Aftermath of 9/11

Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.

Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.

Controversial Actions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance presently."

But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."

Additional Factors

Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.

Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.

Interrogation Methods

Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."

Public Image

Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a effective way to operate, actually."

Commercial Ties

Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.

In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.

It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty