Cheney, a Republican, is considered the architect of the so-called “war on terror,” the strategy underlying the US military interventions that began after the September 11, 2001, attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq, of which he was a leading advocate.
It is worth remembering that during the hours of the 9/11 attack on America, Cheney was on the command deck of the United States Defense Forces in Washington while President George W. Bush was fleeing aboard Air Force One to safety.
There are those who suspect that Dick Cheney, not Osama Bin Laden, was the real director of 9/11 movie, or, according to others, he was the assistant director of that movie along with Israel!
In fact, due to various subsequent political misadventures, (including the great fake that started the war in Iraq), Cheney ended his second term as vice president as one of the most unpopular politicians in recent American history, and never ran for president.
He was a much-discussed and criticized figure, and as vice president, he played a central role in defining US domestic and foreign policy after 9/11, as well as the role and responsibilities of the vice president’s office.
His political career in Washington began on the staff of Republican President Gerald Ford, where he served first as deputy chief of staff (1974–1975), then chief of staff (1975–1977), a central role in all US administrations, effectively serving as the president’s top aide.
After a decade as a congressman, elected from Wyoming, he served as secretary of defense for George H.W. Bush (George W. Bush’s father), coordinating first the US invasion of Panama (1989) and then the first Gulf War in Iraq (1991).
In 2000, George W. Bush chose him as vice president, somewhat anomalously: Cheney was the head of the group that was supposed to select the vice president, but in the end, he was chosen himself.
Bush and Cheney won one of the most balanced, chaotic, and contested presidential elections ever, the 2000 election, the outcome of which was decided only after more than a month of legal wrangling.
Cheney wielded enormous power during the first Bush administration, partly exploiting the president’s inexperience.
He acted independently, created a parallel chain of command, and made several important decisions without reporting directly to the president.
He recommended immediate intervention after the attacks on the Twin Towers, with the bombing of Afghanistan, and above all, he was decisive in convincing Bush of the need to invade Iraq in 2003 to oust President Saddam Hussein.
During the “war on terror,” Cheney was one of the most ardent proponents of the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
Under Bush, he also spearheaded a progressive expansion of the president’s powers, after decades of limitations by Congress and the effects of the Watergate scandal.
The effects of those decisions and the military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq continued for decades. His influence on government action diminished somewhat in Bush’s second term, but remained much greater than that of a normal vice president.
He did not hold any other public office thereafter.
He had suffered heart problems since the 1970s: he suffered his first heart attack in 1978, at age 37, during a campaign for a House seat; he underwent surgery several times and wore a pacemaker.
He said he asked doctors to disable the device’s wireless functionality, fearing it could be used to try to kill him.
In recent years, Cheney had become highly critical of the current Republican Party, and especially of Donald Trump’s leadership.
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