Dick Cheney, the polarising former US vice‑president who played a central role in the George W Bush administration and helped lead the US into the invasion of Iraq, has died at age 84, his family said.
Cheney’s long career in Washington included stints as a member of Congress, White House chief of staff, secretary of defense and, most consequentially, vice‑president. He was widely regarded as one of the most powerful vice‑presidents in US history, exerting major influence over a less experienced president and shaping post‑9/11 policy.
He was in office on 11 September 2001. As the Bush administration scrambled in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks, Cheney and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld took on central policy roles. US forces soon intervened in Afghanistan to topple the Taliban and pursue al‑Qaida.
But Cheney’s legacy will be defined above all by the decision to invade Iraq. Having served as defense secretary during the 1990–91 Gulf war, he became a leading advocate within the Bush administration for removing Saddam Hussein. The public case for war rested on claims Iraq had links to al‑Qaida and possessed weapons of mass destruction; by the time US and coalition forces invaded in March 2003, those claims had not been substantiated and were later discredited. Cheney later wrote that the administration believed it “had an obligation to do whatever it took to defend America,” arguing that the mission should determine the coalition rather than vice versa.
The human cost of the wars that followed was high. Researchers at Brown University’s Watson Institute estimate that since 2001 at least 800,000 people have been killed by direct war violence across Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and Pakistan. The US treatment of detainees in the “war on terror” was also fiercely contested; Cheney remained a defender of harsh interrogation techniques after leaving office.
Cheney’s ascent came despite setbacks. A Yale dropout who had avoided service in Vietnam, he rose through Republican ranks: an aide in the Nixon White House, the youngest-ever chief of staff to Gerald Ford, a congressman under Ronald Reagan, and secretary of defense for George H W Bush. He moved into the private sector with Halliburton before being chosen by George W Bush as his running mate in the 2000 election. By then he had survived three heart attacks. His time in office included personal embarrassments, notably when he accidentally shot a hunting companion.
In later years his health continued to be a concern. Cheney underwent a successful heart transplant in 2012. His longtime physician described him as open about his heart disease and exceptionally compliant with treatment, a factor credited with extending his life.
Cheney’s political family legacy includes his daughter Liz Cheney, who followed him into Congress representing Wyoming in the same seat he once held. She later broke with much of her party over Donald Trump and was censured by Republican officials after condemning the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. The elder Cheney joined her in marking the first anniversary of January 6, saying he was “deeply disappointed” by contemporary Republican leadership and warning of the event’s importance.
In 2024 Cheney said he would vote for the Democratic ticket over the Republican nominee, calling Donald Trump “a greater threat to our republic” than any prior individual in US history and saying he felt obliged to put country above party to defend the Constitution.
Biographers and commentators have noted Cheney’s relish for his fearsome reputation. Jake Bernstein, who wrote about Cheney during the release of the film Vice, said Cheney liked being portrayed as a dark, influential figure and showed little interest in softening that image.
Cheney’s death brings to a close a life that loomed large in Republican politics and reshaped US foreign and security policy in the early 21st century, with consequences that continue to reverberate.
