Dick Cheney, Key Architect of the ‘War on Terror’, Dies at 84

Dick Cheney, the former vice president who helped shape America’s post-9/11 wars and pushed the country into Iraq under false intelligence, has died at 84. His family said he passed away from complications of pneumonia and heart disease, surrounded by his wife Lynne and daughters Liz and Mary.

“His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed,” the family said, calling him “a great and good man” who taught his family “to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing.”

Cheney served as vice president from 2001 to 2009 under George W. Bush and became one of Washington’s most influential — and divisive — power brokers. Bush called him “a decent, honorable man” and “among the finest public servants of his generation.”

A lifelong conservative, Cheney drove U.S. foreign policy after the September 11 attacks, championing pre-emptive war and expanded executive power. He pushed for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, citing claims about weapons of mass destruction that later proved false. Defending those decisions, Cheney said officials had relied on “the best available intelligence” and rejected accusations of distortion.

Cheney’s tenure was defined by his defense of controversial “enhanced interrogation” tactics and indefinite detentions at Guantanamo Bay — policies critics called torture.

In later years, Cheney broke with his party over Donald Trump, calling him “a coward” and “the greatest-ever threat to our republic.” He supported Kamala Harris in 2024, saying it was his duty “to put country above partisanship.”

A Wyoming native and former defense secretary under George H. W. Bush, Cheney survived multiple heart attacks and a 2012 heart transplant. He is survived by Lynne, their daughters, and seven grandchildren.