How Former VP Dick Cheney Led the Charge on the War on Terror (full documentary) | FRONTLINE (PBS)

In “The Dark Side,” which aired in 2006, FRONTLINE investigated the internal war that was waged between the intelligence community and former Vice President Dick Cheney after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Just after the attacks, Cheney told Americans: “A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies.”. He warned the public that the government would have to operate on the “dark side.”

This documentary detailed the vice president’s role as the chief architect of the war on terror, and his battle with former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet for control of the “dark side.” After 9/11, both leaders acted fast to prepare the U.S. for a new kind of war. But soon a debate grew over the goals of the war on terror, and the decision to go to war in Iraq.

Drawing on more than 40 interviews and thousands of documents, this film provided a step-by-step examination of what happened inside the councils of war at that time.

Cheney died on Nov. 3, 2025, at age 84.

“The Dark Side” was written, produced and directed by Michael Kirk. It was produced and reported by Jim Gilmore. The executive editor of FRONTLINE was Louis Wiley, Jr. The executive producer of FRONTLINE was David Fanning.

In the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, we are making a number of seminal documentaries from the days and years after 9/11 available to stream on YouTube for the first time. Starting with today’s release of “The Dark Side” and continuing every Tuesday until the week of Sept. 11, these documentaries offer a profound historical record of the attacks, what led up to them, the U.S. government's response, and the ripple effects across the U.S. and the world.


CHAPTERS:

00:00 - Prologue
00:40 - How Former VP Dick Cheney Responded to the 9/11 Attacks
12:20 - Inside Key Discussions After 9/11
31:17 - How the U.S. Government’s Focus Shifted from Afghanistan to Iraq
44:10 - The Significance of the Oct. 2002 National Intelligence Estimate Report
59:36 - Events Leading Up to the War in Iraq
01:12:05 - Investigating an Apparent Covert Campaign Against the CIA
01:23:06 - Credits

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