Dick Cheney, who served as the 46th vice president of the United States, has passed away at the age of 84, according to a statement from his family cited by U.S. outlets on Tuesday.
Cheney, who held the position under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, “died due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease,” his family said.
“For decades, Dick Cheney served our nation, including as White House Chief of Staff, Wyoming’s Congressman, Secretary of Defense, and Vice President of the United States,” the family’s statement read.
Regarded as one of the most influential vice presidents in U.S. history, Cheney was often portrayed as a strategic power broker who exercised immense influence behind the scenes.
Born on January 30, 1941, in Lincoln, Nebraska, Cheney spent most of his childhood in Wyoming, the state he would later represent in Congress.
He initially attended Yale University but left before completing his studies, later earning a political science degree from the University of Wyoming.
A committed Republican, Cheney began his political career in earnest in 1978, when he won Wyoming’s lone seat in the House of Representatives, a position he would hold for ten years.
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed him as secretary of defense, where Cheney oversaw U.S. military operations during the 1990–91 Gulf War, a campaign that expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
During his tenure as vice president, Cheney advanced a staunchly neo-conservative agenda and assumed an unusually prominent role in shaping national security and foreign policy decisions.
He was considered a key advocate for the U.S. invasion of Iraq following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, promoting the now-discredited assertion that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, a claim that became central to the case for the 2003 war.
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