Dick Cheney, a towering and polarizing figure in American politics who as the most powerful vice president in modern history was a chief architect of the post-9/11 “war on terror,” has died at 84. His legacy is largely defined by the controversial 2003 invasion of Iraq, a conflict launched on flawed intelligence.
According to a family statement, Cheney passed away from complications of pneumonia and cardiovascular disease. He was surrounded by his wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other relatives. The family remembered him as a “great and good man” and a “noble giant” who taught them to “love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing.”
Former President George W. Bush, under whom Cheney served as the 46th vice president from 2001 to 2009, described him as a “decent, honorable man.” In a statement, Bush added, “History will remember him as among the finest public servants of his generation – a patriot who brought integrity, high intelligence, and seriousness of purpose to every position.” Other former presidents, including Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, also paid tribute to Cheney’s long career in public service.
Cheney’s path to the vice presidency was unconventional. After a distinguished career as a Wyoming representative, White House chief of staff, and defense secretary, he was leading a lucrative corporate career when George W. Bush tasked him with finding a running mate. The search concluded with Bush selecting Cheney himself, adding a seasoned Washington insider to the ticket of a Texas governor with little foreign policy experience.
While often caricatured as the true power behind the throne, historical accounts confirm Bush was the ultimate decision-maker. Nonetheless, Cheney wielded enormous influence, particularly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. With Bush out of town that morning, Cheney coordinated the initial government response from a bunker beneath the White House. He gave the extraordinary order to authorize the military to shoot down any hijacked airliners threatening Washington, a moment he later said permanently changed him.
The attacks galvanized Cheney, who became a leading advocate for a neo-conservative doctrine of pre-emptive war. He was instrumental in shaping the “war on terror,” first in Afghanistan and then by aggressively pushing for an invasion of Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein. His public warnings about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction and alleged links to al Qaeda were pivotal in building the case for war. Subsequent inquiries revealed that these claims were based on faulty intelligence that was exaggerated or misrepresented. One of Cheney’s most infamous assertions—that 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta met with Iraqi intelligence—was never substantiated.
To the end of his life, Cheney remained defiant, expressing no regrets for the policies he championed. He steadfastly defended the use of “enhanced interrogation” techniques, which critics condemned as torture, and the indefinite detention of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. “I would do it again in a minute,” he said in 2014 regarding the interrogation methods. Of the Iraq war, he stated in 2015, “It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now.”
Cheney’s hawkish stance was rooted in a lifelong belief that the power of the executive branch had been wrongly diminished after the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. In a striking final chapter, however, he became a fierce critic of Donald Trump, a president with an even more expansive view of executive authority. After initially supporting Trump in 2016, Cheney broke sharply with him following the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol.
He forcefully backed his daughter, then-Rep. Liz Cheney, in her opposition to Trump, which ultimately cost her her seat in Congress. In a 2022 campaign ad, a stern Cheney looked directly into the camera and declared, “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He is a coward.” The traditional conservative’s alienation from the populist-driven GOP culminated in 2024 when he cast his final presidential vote for Democrat Kamala Harris, stating it was his “duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution.”
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on January 30, 1941, Richard Bruce Cheney grew up in Casper, Wyoming, where he met his future wife, Lynne Vincent. After being expelled from Yale University for poor grades and facing two DUIs while working on power lines, an ultimatum from Lynne prompted him to refocus. He returned to school, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from the University of Wyoming.
His political career began as an aide in the Nixon administration. He rose to become White House chief of staff under President Gerald Ford, working alongside his close friend and mentor, Donald Rumsfeld. After serving six terms in Congress, he was appointed Secretary of Defense by President George H.W. Bush, skillfully overseeing the US invasion of Panama and Operation Desert Storm.
Cheney was plagued by cardiovascular disease for most of his adult life, suffering his first heart attack at 37. Despite surviving four more heart attacks, he served two full terms as vice president and lived for many years after a successful heart transplant in 2012, a procedure he called “the gift of life itself.”
He is survived by his wife Lynne, their daughters Liz and Mary, and seven grandchildren.
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