Former Vice President Dick Cheney Passes Away at Age 84

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Dick Cheney, who became one of the most powerful vice presidents in US history as George W. Bush’s number two during 9/11 and catastrophic wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, died Monday. He was 84.

Cheney forged an influential role in the traditionally inconsequential job and was a major power behind the throne as Bush thrust America into the so-called war on terror, with a dark underbelly of renditions, torture and the Guantanamo prison site.

A hate figure to many on the left, he made a remarkable pivot toward the end of his life, opposing Donald Trump’s ultimately successful campaign to return to the White House in 2024.

Cheney’s daughter Liz Cheney, a former congresswoman from Wyoming, said her deeply Republican father had voted for Trump’s Democratic opponent Kamala Harris.

Cheney, who previously served as a U.S. congressman and defense secretary, passed away due to complications arising from pneumonia, along with cardiac and vascular diseases, as confirmed by his family.

As 46th vice president, Cheney served for two terms between 2001 and 2009.

The job is often frustrating for ambitious politicians, but Cheney’s Machiavellian skills gave him considerable sway.

He helped usher in an aggressive notion of executive power, believing the president should be able to operate almost unfettered by lawmakers or the courts, particularly during wartime.

It was an approach that saw Bush enter military quagmires in Afghanistan and Iraq, and prompt major controversy over his impact on civil liberties.

Bush on Tuesday hailed his former vice president as “among the finest public servants of his generation” and “the one I needed” when in the White House.

Former President Bush praised Cheney as a “patriot who infused integrity, exceptional intelligence, and a serious commitment to every role he undertook.”

During the 1990-91 Gulf War, Cheney was at the helm of the Pentagon, overseeing a U.S.-led coalition that successfully drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on 30 January 1941, Cheney grew up mostly in the sparsely populated western state of Wyoming.

He attended Yale University but dropped out of the prestigious east coast school and ended up earning a degree in political science back home at the University of Wyoming.

He spent ten years in congress as a representative for Wyoming before being appointed defense secretary by George H.W. Bush in 1989.

Cheney once predicted that U.S. forces would be “welcomed as liberators” upon entering Iraq. Source: AAP / James Kudla / Sipa USA

Man stands on a tank in front of group of soldiers

As vice president, Cheney brought his neo-conservative ideology to the White House and played a greater role in making major policy decisions than many of his predecessors in the role.

Cheney was one of the driving forces behind the decision to invade Iraq following the 11 September 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda on New York and Washington.

His inaccurate claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction fuelled the drumbeat for war ahead of the 2003 US invasion.

Seen as Bush’s mentor on foreign policy, Cheney remained loyal to his former boss and was a staunch defender of Bush-era policies.

In a 2015 interview, Cheney said he had no regrets over the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and credited a so-called “enhanced interrogation program” for the capture of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in 2011 during Barack Obama’s presidency.