“to the victor go the spoils of war,” applies to Dick Cheney, the most powerful vice-president in USA history
The saying “to the victor go the spoils of war,” applies to Dick Cheney, the most powerful vice-president in USA history. A NY Times obituary acknowledges his malfeasance but then balances it with Cheney’s own words, leaving the reader to wonder what is true.
However, if the truth movement can prevail on presenting a true and accurate portrayal of Cheney, and if ignominy is the standard for measuring virtue, then he stands to go down in history as the most ignominious vice-president, up there with Aaron Burr.
Indeed, Cheney’s career is marked by fealty to the powerful that secretly operate the deep state; he has had a long run as a continuity of government operator, reaching the zenith of power in his 8 year stint as vice-president to George Bush Jr.
Cheney agreed to be Bush Jr.’s VP with the proviso that his office would control the foreign affairs side of state and the Department of Energy. Cheney ran an executive office parallel to the president’s, and conducted business on a need to know basis, excluding Bush from deep state machinations.
The New York Times article on Cheney is notable for what is omitted.
The NY Times covers up Cheney’s long time role as a “continuity of government” actor who served as a deep state operator; this aspect of his governmental service, as an agent of plutocracy, is glossed over or not mentioned.
Dick Cheney is best understood as a soldier for the powerful Republican bosses, and the plutocrats that pull their strings. He worked in the late 1960’s for his US Congress representative from Wyoming and proved himself an able apparatchik. He met Donald Rumsfeld who was serving in Congress at the time, and the two formed a tight bond.
Cheney next worked in the Nixon administration, and then followed Donald Rumsfeld into the Ford administration. Later, he held the Wyoming House seat for 10 years during the Reagan administration, but moved into the Bush senior Executive Branch serving as Department of Defense and oversaw the first Gulf War in 1991.
During the Clinton years, Cheney served as a chief executive officer of Haliburton, an oil mining services company, returning to government with George Bush Jr. , later awarding contracts to Haliburton in the 2003 Gulf War.
The Supreme Court called the election for the Bush / Cheney ticket by ending the vote count in Florida; thus, giving the Neo-Cons the win they needed to advance the Project for a New American Century, and a generation of war.
It is notable that Cheney served under Gerald Ford, (a deep state / continuity of government operator in his own right) when he was President. In 1963 / 1964 Ford was appointed to the Warren Commission to investigate the JFK assassination. He lent credibility to a big lie by signing his name to the Commission report. Alan Dulles, fired by Kennedy, was appointed also, to guide the Commission findings to pin the murder on Oswald.
Cheney was a vociferous proponent for a “unitary executive authority” that would expand the role and power of the national security state. This idea would run roughshod over democratic practices, and diminish the power and authority of Congressional oversight. Even though Cheney professed to disagree with Donald Trump over his instigation of the January 6 Capitol riot to interrupt the Electoral College ceremony, Trump is actualizing the intention behind a ‘unitary executive authority.’ The Trump presidency is an element of Cheney’s legacy.
Cheney is one of several prominent neo-conservatives who advanced the Project for a New American Century, a blueprint for getting the USA onto an empire building war program. The hoped for “peace dividend” from the Berlin Wall coming down in 1989, and the Soviet Union fracturing into the Russian Federation, was deflected into warmongering against terrorism. The basement bombing of World Trade Center 1 in 1991 presaged the war on Terror. Later the bombing of the Cole in the Yemeni harbor, and a media campaign that identified Osama bin Laden as the mastermind, set the stage for him to be the patsy for the September 11, 2001.
For over a decade preceding the September 11 attack, and likely back to the days he was working for President Ford, Cheney and others, were engaging in role playing / gaming exercises for a “continuity of government” situation. September 11 was the trigger that put the practice into action.
While President Bush Jr. was visiting at a Florida elementary school , Dick Cheney ran the command center for the 9/11 response from the Whitehouse Basement. Cheney was in charge.
Covering up September 11th and blaming Arab Muslims.
Cheney was one of the first prominent voices to explain the destruction of the World Trade Towers as the result of the airplane fires causing the buildings to “pancake.” He echoed the claims that Osama Bin Laden and his band of Islamic terrorists hijacked the planes and flew them into the towers. This was within 12 hours of the event. How could he, or anyone know this? What about innocent until proven guilty? All our freedoms that we consider dear were thrown out the window on that fateful day.
Cheney’s command on September 11th and immediate proffering of an explanation and cause, and culprit, shows his malfeasance. He introduced the big lie that airplanes made the buildings come down, and that Arabs did it.
Bob Mueller was appointed Director of FBI one week before 9/11, but his job as lead investigator of the September 11th crime was somehow preempted by Deputy Director of Department Justice Michael Chertoff; FEMA took command of the crime scene and managed the site as though it was a natural disaster. This violated basic criminal procedures and shows a cover up.
Dick Cheney and all others who conspired to enable the WTC and Pentagon attacks, and those who denied an actual investigation, should be tried as conspirators to commit treason, on top of basic conspiracy to commit murder.
How should we remember Richard Cheney?
We should remember him as a soldier for the plutocracy who rose to the supreme position, served as the Grand Marshal of 9/11, and set the narrative that deceived the world.
A very crass man, he said “f-you” to Senator Leahy on the Senate floor because Leahy resisted the Patriot Act, wanted to read the proposed legislation. And don’t forget the Anthrax attack, which forced the Senate to pass the Patriot Act.
He would advance the big lie of Weapons of Mass destruction to initiate the 2003 war against Iraq.
Merchants of Death activist group indicts corporations that profit from war crimes. This media technique to correct the historical record needs to be applied post-humously for treason to people like Dick Cheney, Angleton, and Dulles, and others, who did the state crimes from JFK to 9/11 to Covid, and to foreign crimes like killing heads of state and overthrowing duly elected democracies, like in Chile in 1973.
Treason is a crime against the state; it means taking the side of the enemy of the United States. Cheney sided with the deep state that is owned and operated by plutocratic elements. Plutocracy is a global / transnational power structure that endeavors to subordinate the nation states to its control. Cheney is / was allied with the cabal and doesn’t care about the constitution, human rights, or have any regard for authentic democracy.
He and others waged an attack on the American people through the events on September 11th , and the subsequent Anthrax attack to usher in the Patriot Act, set the stage for “forever wars,” and instilled national security / mass surveillance. The list of grievances we have against him goes on and on.
We the people should say enough is enough and demand the plutocracy be removed from power and replaced with real democracy, and we should advance a global movement for an egalitarian society where there is no rich and no poor, and bring an end to war, the plutocratic cudgel that divides and conquers us.
Appendix:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/us/politics/dick-cheney-dead.html?searchResultPosition=7 Cheney dies at 84; Washington DC insider and powerful VP
A group of American conservative politicians issued a statement on June 3, 1997, titled “Project for the New American Century.” Among the signatories of this statement were ten members of the future American Bush administration, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and George Bush’s brother Jeb. The organization called for the promotion of complete American dominance in the world. It stated:
“we need to accept responsibility for America’s unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.“
In September 2000, the Project for the New American Century published a study “Rebuilding America’s Defenses Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century“. There you can read:
“To preserve American military preeminence in the coming decades, the Department of Defense must move more aggressively to experiment with new technologies and operational concepts, and seek to exploit the emerging revolution in military affairs…These information technologies are having the same kind of transforming effects on military affairs as they are having in the larger world. The effects of this military transformation will have profound implications for how wars are fought, what kinds of weapons will dominate the battlefield and, inevitably, which nations enjoy military preeminence… Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor. Domestic politics and industrial policy will shape the pace and content of transformation as much as the requirements of current missions.”
The concept of Revolution in Military Affairs encompasses scientific research indicating that human brain activity, including cognitive functions, can be modulated by directing electromagnetic waves or other physical fields at it, which induces electrical currents that align with its inherent frequencies.
At that time already quite a few scientists have warned that the latest advances in neurophysiology could be used for the manipulation of the human consciousness.
Ed Curtin on Dick Cheney: https://www.globalresearch.ca/another-september-11th/5867891
History of NATO military campaigns: https://www.globalresearch.ca/history-of-us-nato-military-campaigns-1991-2023/5813708
Victory Nuland deep state operator: https://www.globalresearch.ca/victoria-nuland-hand-every-us-intervention-past-30-years/5737406
As the Senate prepares to confirm Nuland for Under Secretary for Political Affairs, a reflection of her last 30 years in government shows how she was connected to nearly every foreign policy disaster undertaken by the United States.
President Joe Biden’s nomination of Victoria Nuland for Under Secretary for Political Affairs, the third-highest position at the State Department, is a dangerous sign. Nuland exemplifies the neoconservatives who have led American foreign policy from one disaster to another for the past 30 years, all while evading any shred of accountability.
As a top-level appointee, Nuland must still be confirmed by the Senate. And while pro-peace groups have waged a campaign to stop her confirmation, reflecting on her career in public service makes clear why she is incompetent, highly dangerous, and should not be confirmed.
Afghanistan and Iraq
From 2000 to 2003, when the Bush administration attacked and then invaded Afghanistan, Nuland was serving as Bush’s permanent representative to NATO. The Afghan government offered to work with the Americans to remove al-Qaeda, but the offer was rejected. After al-Qaeda was defeated, the U.S. could have left Afghanistan but instead stayed, established semi-permanent bases, splintered the country, and is still fighting there two decades later.
From 2003 to 2005, Nuland was principal foreign policy advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney who “helped plan and manage the war that toppled [Iraqi leader] Saddam Hussein, including making [the] Bush administration’s case for preemptive military action based on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.” The foreign policy establishment, including Nuland, insisted that removing Saddam Hussein and installing a U.S. “ally” would be simple.
The invasion and continuing occupation have resulted in over a million dead Iraqis, many thousands of dead Americans, hundreds of thousands with PTSD, and a bill for American taxpayers of 2 to 6 trillion dollars.
Continuity of Government https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-911-plan-cheney-rumsfeld-and-the-continuity-of-government/5320879
Continuity in Government (COG)
At this time the White House also developed a secret emergency plan, put in action however only at September 11th, 2001 for the first time. Initially it should guarantee that the government could continue its operations even after a Soviet nuclear strike. The plan was called COG (Continuity of Government) and called for a very special emergency measure: when disaster struck, three teams should be sent to different places in the country, replacing the government. Each team would have an own “president” as well as other people standing in for the different departments and government agencies. If one team would be killed, the next one could be activated. So the planners hoped to keep control over the military and the most important parts of the administration, after an atomic bomb or another disaster had wiped out the government in Washington. (5)
Karl Rove sets the record straight: https://www.globalresearch.ca/karl-roves-prophecy-were-an-empire-now-and-when-we-act-we-create-our-own-reality/5572533
In a famous exchange between a high official at the court of George W. Bush and journalist Ron Susskind, the official – later acknowledged to have been Karl Rove – takes the journalist to task for working in “the reality-based community.” He defined that as believing “that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” Rove then asserted that this was no longer the way in which the world worked.
“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” (Ron Suskind, NYTimes Magazine, Oct. 17, 2004).
This declaration became popular as an illustration of the hubris of the Bush-Cheney government. But we could also see it as fulfilled prophecy. Fulfilled in a manner that no journalist at that time would have deemed possible. Yes, the neoconservatives brought disrepute upon themselves because of the disaster in Iraq. Sure, opposition to the reality Rove had helped create in that devastated country became a first rung on the ladder that could lead to the presidency, as it did for Barack Obama. But the neocons stayed put in the State Department and other positions closely linked to the Obama White House, where they became allies with the liberal hawks in continuing to ‘spread democracy’ by overthrowing regimes.
Dick Cheney response to 9/11 https://www.globalresearch.ca/another-911-intrigue-dick-cheney-john-yoo-and-continuity-in-government-cog-measures-on-911/5545654
I hope in this paper to show that Dick Cheney responded to 9/11 by using devious means to install a small cabal of lawyers – most notoriously John Yoo – who proceeded conspiratorially in the next weeks to exclude their superiors, while secretly authorizing measures ranging from warrantless surveillance and detention to torture.
Some of these were measures which Cheney and Rumsfeld had previously been preparing for almost two decades, as central figures in the secret agency planning for so-called Continuity of Government (COG). It was revealed in the 1980s that these plans aimed at granting a president emergency powers, uncurbed by congressional restraints, to intervene abroad, and also to detain large numbers of those who might protest such actions.
On 9/11, the 9/11 Report confirms, COG was implemented.
As we shall see, Cheney promptly ordered the three top figures in the Justice Department out of Washington to a designated COG site buried deep underground.
As a consequence, since 9/11 we have seen warrantless surveillance, suspension of habeas corpus, and the militarization of homeland security, on an unprecedented scale that is not just illegal but an erasure of rights specified in the U.S. constitution.[1]
Furthermore, the secrecy and speed of the manner in which our rights were drastically subverted is itself an affront to the ideals of America as an open society: one in which major changes to our political fabric are only made through authorized channels, and after debate.
How Cheney’s Presidential Power Push Paved the Way for Trump to Go Further
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/us/politics/trump-dick-cheney.html?searchResultPosition=8
Donald J. Trump and Dick Cheney became adversaries, but the former vice president set the stage for Mr. Trump’s bid to expand his executive authority.
But Mr. Trump’s approach to power is, in many ways, the fulfillment of the worldview of the Dick Cheney of a quarter-century ago. “When you’re asking about my view of the presidency, yes, I believe in a strong, robust executive authority,” Mr. Cheney said in 2005. “And I think the world we live in demands it.”