Dick Cheney, widely regarded by presidential historians as one of the most powerful vice presidents in US history and a key architect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has died at age 84. His family confirmed the death late Monday night, citing complications from pneumonia, cardiac, and vascular disease.
A staunch Republican, Cheney was already a formidable figure in Washington—having previously served as a Wyoming congressman and Secretary of Defense—when then-Texas Governor George W. Bush selected him as his running mate in 2000. Serving as Vice President from 2001 to 2009, Cheney aggressively fought for an expansion of executive power, believing the presidency had been weakened since the Watergate scandal that forced the resignation of his former boss, Richard Nixon. He centralized authority by constructing a national security team within the vice president’s office that often functioned as an independent power center within the administration.
### The Architect of War
Cheney was a leading voice pushing for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, frequently warning of the danger posed by Iraq’s alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction—a stockpile that was ultimately never found. He and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a longtime colleague dating back to the Nixon White House, suggested connections between Saddam Hussein’s regime, Al Qaeda, and the September 11, 2001, attacks, a theory later discredited by the 9/11 commission.
Cheney famously predicted that US forces would be “greeted as liberators” in Iraq and that the deployment, which would ultimately last around a decade, would be over in “weeks rather than months.” In later years, he maintained the invasion was the correct decision based on the intelligence available at the time and the successful removal of Saddam Hussein from power.
More than a decade earlier, serving as Defense Secretary under President George H.W. Bush, Cheney had directed the US military operation to expel an Iraqi occupation army from Kuwait during the First Gulf War. At that time, however, he had opposed an invasion of Iraq proper, warning that the US would have to act alone and the situation would become a quagmire.
### Controversy and Clashes
Cheney’s tenure was defined by fierce internal conflicts with top Bush aides, including Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. He staunchly defended “enhanced” interrogation techniques—including waterboarding and sleep deprivation—used on terrorism suspects, even though bodies like the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the UN special rapporteur on human rights condemned the practices as “torture.”
Before his political comeback, Cheney had headed the oil services firm Halliburton, receiving a $35 million retirement package. Halliburton subsequently became a major government contractor during the Iraq War, leading to frequent criticism regarding Cheney’s financial links to the conflict.
A Republican Against Trump
In his later years, the man who had long been a foe of the left took a dramatic stand against his own party’s leader. Cheney supported his daughter, influential Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney, after she lost her House seat following her vote to impeach and vigorous opposition to President Donald Trump after the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Aligning himself fully with her position, Cheney called Trump “a greater threat to our republic than any individual in our nation’s 248-year history,” even stating he would vote for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in 2024.
Cheney was plagued by heart problems for most of his life, suffering the first of multiple heart attacks at age 37, and received a heart transplant in 2012.
Early Life and Public Persona
Born Richard Bruce Cheney in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1941, he grew up in a family of staunch New Deal Democrats, making him the first Republican in his immediate lineage in generations. After moving to Wyoming, he briefly attended Yale, where he admitted to being a “mediocre student” and dropped out. He later earned undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Wyoming.
After starting as a congressional intern in 1969, Cheney quickly rose through the Republican ranks, serving in the Nixon and Ford administrations, where he became Ford’s Chief of Staff. During his 10 years as Wyoming’s sole congressman, his record was highly conservative, opposing abortion rights, gun control, environmental funding, and even the release of imprisoned South African leader Nelson Mandela.
Despite his hard-line image, he showed surprising flexibility on personal matters, supporting same-sex relationships—a stance that put him at odds with the Bush administration’s anti-gay marriage push—as his second daughter, Mary, is openly gay.
Throughout his time as Vice President, late-night comedians often dubbed Cheney “Darth Vader,” a comparison he humorously embraced, even dressing as the *Star Wars* villain on a late-night show to promote his memoir.
His legacy remained contentious even after leaving office. In 2006, he famously made headlines when he accidentally shot Texas lawyer Harry Wittington in the face during a hunting trip. He was later portrayed unflatteringly in the 2018 biopic *Vice*, a performance for which actor Christian Bale, playing Cheney, publicly thanked “Satan for giving me inspiration.” Seemingly relishing his reputation, Cheney once predicted the release of his memoir would cause critics’ heads to be “exploding” across Washington, using the book to settle scores with former colleagues like Condoleezza Rice, whom he described as naive.
