WASHINGTON, United States — Dick Cheney, the former US vice-president, defense secretary, and one of the most powerful figures in modern American politics, has died at 84, his family announced on Monday.
A towering influence in Republican administrations for over four decades, Cheney served as vice president under President George W.
Bush from 2001 to 2009, a period that reshaped US foreign and security policy after the September 11 attacks. His tenure was defined by the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the “war on terror,” and the use of controversial interrogation tactics that critics labelled torture.
When hijacked planes struck New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, Cheney assumed command from a secure location as Bush was moved to safety. Working closely with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, he helped steer America into war with Afghanistan and later Iraq.
Cheney had previously served as defense secretary under President George H. W. Bush during the 1990–1991 Gulf War, when US forces expelled Saddam Hussein from Kuwait.
A decade later, he became one of the chief architects of the 2003 Iraq invasion, claiming that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and had links to al-Qaida — allegations later proven false.
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq left an immense human toll. According to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, at least 800,000 people have died from direct war violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan since 2001.
Despite international criticism, Cheney remained unapologetic about the use of “enhanced interrogation” techniques and extraordinary rendition. “We did what we had to do to defend America,” he said in later interviews.
A Yale dropout who avoided military service during the Vietnam War, Cheney began his political career as an aide in the Nixon administration, later becoming the youngest-ever White House chief of staff under Gerald Ford.
He served six terms in Congress representing Wyoming and was defense secretary under the elder Bush before returning to government as Bush Jr.’s running mate in 2000.
His tenure was not without personal controversy — including an infamous 2006 hunting accident in which he accidentally shot a companion in the face — and a long battle with heart disease that led to multiple heart attacks and a transplant in 2012.
In his later years, Cheney became an outspoken critic of Donald Trump and the direction of the Republican Party. Alongside his daughter, former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, he denounced Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack.
In 2024, Cheney publicly declared he would vote for Democrat Kamala Harris over Trump, calling the former president “the greatest threat to our republic in 248 years” and urging Americans to “put country above partisanship.”
Even after decades in Washington, Cheney remained a polarising figure — hailed by supporters as a patriot who strengthened American security, and condemned by critics as the face of an era defined by secrecy, war, and executive overreach.
