Dick Cheney Dead at 84: Obituary of the Architect of the War on Terror and George W. Bush’s VP

WASHINGTON D.C. – Dick Cheney, the 46th Vice President of the United States and the chief architect of the nation’s post-9/11 “War on Terror,” has died at age 84, his family confirmed Tuesday. He died from complications of pneumonia and cardiovascular disease, having lived 13 years after receiving a heart transplant.

Cheney served two terms alongside President George W. Bush (2001-2009) and was widely regarded as the most powerful and polarizing vice president in modern American history, leveraging his deep experience in Washington to wield immense influence from behind the scenes.

Cheney’s political identity was fundamentally reshaped by the attacks of September 11, 2001. From a bunker deep below the White House that day, he went into crisis mode, determined to enforce US power and pursue a doctrine of pre-emptive war.

Iraq War: Cheney’s aggressive warnings about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to al Qaeda were instrumental in laying the groundwork for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Post-war inquiries later showed that he and other administration officials exaggerated or misrepresented faulty intelligence about weapons that Iraq did not possess.

Controversial Practices: The War on Terror also saw Cheney become the outspoken champion of controversial legal and moral practices, including the use of “enhanced interrogations” (which critics branded as torture) and the indefinite detention of suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

To the end of his life, Cheney maintained he had no regrets about his decisions, stating in 2015 of the Iraq War: “It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now.”

Cheney’s long career saw him serve in four Republican administrations, rising from a college dropout and White House chief of staff under Gerald Ford to Defense Secretary under George H.W. Bush, where he skillfully directed Operation Desert Storm.

He was selected as George W. Bush’s running mate in 2000 precisely because he brought a wealth of Washington knowledge and foreign policy gravitas that the inexperienced Texas Governor lacked. He left office in 2009 with a low approval rating of 31% but was hailed by Bush as a “decent, honorable man” and a “patriot.”