Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who transformed the office into an engine of White House power and became chief architect of the war on terror following the September eleventh attacks, died surrounded by family from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family announced.
Cheney, eighty-four years old, passed away with his beloved wife of sixty-one years, Lynne, and daughters Liz and Mary at his side. The forty-sixth vice president served alongside Republican President George W Bush from two thousand one through two thousand nine, wielding extraordinary influence during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that followed the terrorist attacks on American soil.
"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."
Born in Nebraska and raised in Wyoming, Richard B Cheney rose from Capitol Hill intern to the pinnacle of American power over nearly four decades shaping Republican and foreign policy. He became the youngest White House chief of staff in history at age thirty-four under President Gerald Ford, then served six terms as Wyoming's lone congressman, rising to House Republican leadership before joining President George H W Bush's Cabinet as defense secretary in nineteen eighty-nine.
As Pentagon chief, Cheney showed considerable skill directing Operation Desert Storm in nineteen ninety-one to push Iraq's troops out of Kuwait, though the decision to stop short of removing dictator Saddam Hussein from power would later fuel his push for the two thousand three Iraq invasion. Before joining President Bush's ticket in two thousand, Cheney led Halliburton, an oilfield services giant that later won major United States contracts during the Iraq War, fueling years of controversy and ethics debates.
Cheney redefined the office of vice president into one of the most powerful positions in Washington, becoming President Bush's closest adviser and a dominant player in shaping policy. Critics alleged that Cheney was really the man in charge at the White House, with his behind-the-scenes maneuvering leading some to liken him to Darth Vader, a nickname he wryly embraced by joking it was one of the nicer things he had been called.
The so-called War on Terror that Cheney championed lost public support over time as it became clear the pretense the Bush administration used to invade Iraq was false, with no weapons of mass destruction found despite claims they posed an imminent threat. The outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame became a defining scandal of Cheney's tenure, leading to the two thousand seven conviction of his chief of staff Lewis Scooter Libby for perjury and obstruction.
Cheney's health issues began in nineteen seventy-eight when he had his first heart attack at age thirty-seven while running for Congress. Three more followed in the nineteen eighties and nineties, with a fifth in two thousand ten prompting a heart pump installation that kept the organ running until his transplant in two thousand twelve. He received a pacemaker in two thousand one that he famously had modified to prevent potential hacking by terrorists.
In his final years, Cheney turned his ire toward President Trump, calling him a coward and the greatest threat to the republic while supporting his daughter Representative Liz Cheney's unsuccessful campaign to fight off a pro-Trump primary challenge. Two years later he endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris over Trump for president, stating that citizens have a duty to put country above partisanship. Former President Bush said Cheney's death is a loss to the nation and remembered him as a calm and steady presence who never failed to give his honest, forthright counsel during great national challenges.