Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Political Career

The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of that office in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".

Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.

The Period Following the Attacks

Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured 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 terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the US Capitol.

Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.

Controversial Actions

He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."

However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."

Broader Context

Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.

Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked 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 announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.

Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.

Investigation Approaches

Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.

Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."

Public Image

Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."

Business Interests

Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.

In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.

It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty