Dick Cheney — widely regarded as one of the most influential vice presidents in U.S. history and a key architect of the 2003 Iraq invasion — has died at the age of 84, his family announced on Tuesday.
According to the statement, Cheney passed away Monday night due to complications arising from pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.
A Republican heavyweight, Cheney had already established himself in Washington as a Wyoming congressman and U.S. secretary of defense before joining then–Texas Governor George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign as his running mate.
Serving as vice president from 2001 to 2009, Cheney was known for his aggressive push to strengthen presidential powers, which he believed had weakened since the Watergate scandal that forced Richard Nixon, his former boss, from office. He also elevated the influence of the vice president’s office by building a powerful national security team that became a significant decision-making hub within the administration.
Cheney was a staunch proponent of the Iraq War, repeatedly warning of Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction — claims later proven unfounded. He frequently clashed with senior Bush officials, including Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, and defended the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation — methods later labeled as torture by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee and the UN’s counterterrorism rapporteur.
His daughter, Liz Cheney, followed in his political footsteps, serving in the House of Representatives. However, she lost her seat after defying former President Donald Trump and voting to impeach him over the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Dick Cheney publicly supported her stance and even declared his intention to vote for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in 2024, calling Trump “the greatest threat to our republic in 248 years.”
Throughout his life, Cheney battled chronic heart disease, suffering his first heart attack at 37 and eventually undergoing a heart transplant in 2012.
