Former Vice President Dick Cheney, an architect of the global war on terrorism and second Iraq war who served for decades in Congress and three Republican administrations, died Monday night of complications from pneumonia and cardio and vascular disease, his family said in a statement.
He was 84.
Cheney served as vice president for eight years under President George W. Bush and as defense secretary under his father, President George H.W. Bush. Before that, he served in the U.S. House as a Republican from Wyoming and as White House chief of staff for President Gerald Ford.
“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing," the family statement, provided by their spokesperson Jeremy Adler, said. "We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”
Cheney, a forceful and polarizing figure in Washington, was a key figure in the defense and foreign policies of the two Bush administrations. A defense hawk, Cheney spearheaded two major U.S. military operations during Bush senior's tenure, including an invasion of Panama that toppled the country's leader, General Manuel Noriega, and the first Gulf War, in which a U.S.-led coalition of allied nations liberated Kuwait from Iraq after its leader Saddam Hussein's brief and widely condemned invasion of the country. Unlike the second war in Iraq, the 1991 conflict did not end in the removal of Hussein and a protracted occupation by U.S. and allied forces.
During the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Cheney was taken to a White House bunker. Reflecting on that day in a 2009 speech, he said, "I’ve heard occasional speculation that I’m a different man after 9/11. I wouldn’t say that. But I’ll freely admit that watching a coordinated, devastating attack on our country from an underground bunker at the White House can affect how you view your responsibilities."
In the days afterward, Cheney initially told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the U.S. response should be aimed at Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, not Iraq. Bob Woodward later wrote in his book "Bush at War" that while then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld lobbied for military strikes on Iraq, Cheney also “expressed deep concern about Saddam and wouldn’t rule out going after Iraq at some point.”
As vice president under George W. Bush, Cheney fiercely defended the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in the country, which the Bush administration had claimed were a threat given what it alleged were the Hussein government's links to Al Qaeda. Cheney also rebuked Democrats for accusations that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to invade Iraq, calling the attacks “dishonest and reprehensible.” Cheney said in 2006 that the U.S. invasion of Iraq would have been the right move to safeguard national security even if the intelligence community had determined beforehand that there were no weapons of mass destruction.
The war, which continued until the U.S. withdrawal in 2011 under President Barack Obama, was widely viewed as destabilizing to the Middle East, creating a power vacuum and instability that led to the development of other terrorist groups, including the Islamic State.
As a Republican senator from Nebraska in 2005, Chuck Hagel, who later served as Obama's defense secretary, warned that the Iraq War was reminiscent of Vietnam.
“We should start figuring out how we get out of there, but with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East,” Hagel said in an interview on ABC's "This Week." “I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur.”
Cheney spearheaded the Bush administration's "war on terror" and argued in favor of warrantless wiretapping efforts domestically and harsh interrogation techniques abroad, including extreme measures such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation. Even after the CIA stopped using those tactics and Cheney had left the White House, he continued to maintain that those policies were justified.
“Torture is what the al Qaeda terrorists did to 3,000 Americans on 9/11,” Cheney told NBC’s "Meet The Press" in 2014. “There is no comparison between that and what we did with respect to enhanced interrogation.”
Cheney faced continual criticism from Democrats during his tenure in the White House, including from then-Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who unsuccessfully attempted to impeach him over the Iraq War. Cheney also earned the nickname "Darth Vader" from his political foes, although he eventually embraced the joke.
Former President George W. Bush referred to his former vice president in a statement Tuesday as "a calm and steady presence in the White House amid great national challenges. I counted on him for his honest, forthright counsel, and he never failed to give his best. He held to his convictions and prioritized the freedom and security of the American people. For those two terms in office, and throughout his remarkable career, Dick Cheney’s service always reflected credit on the country he loved."
While Cheney was not as visibly active in politics after he left the White House in 2009, he became an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump in recent years. He said during the general election last year that he would vote for the Democratic nominee, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in the 2024 presidential election. Trump responded by calling him an “irrelevant RINO.”
In a 2022 re-election ad for his daughter, then-Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., he warned, "In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump." Liz Cheney, herself a vocal Trump critic over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, ultimately lost the race.
As vice president in 2006, Cheney accidentally shot then-78-year-old Harry Whittington as they hunted quail on a Texas ranch who survived the incident. Cheney told Fox News that the shooting was his fault and said it was “one of the worst days of my life."
Cheney had various health issues over the years, including multiple heart attacks, and in 2012 he received a heart transplant.
He is survived by his wife, Lynne Cheney, his daughters, Liz and Mary Cheney, and several grandchildren.
