Dick Cheney, former US vice-president, dies at 84
Dick Cheney, considered by presidential historians as one of the most powerful vice presidents in US history and the driving force behind the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, died at the age of 84.
Cheney died Monday night from complications of pneumonia and cardiovascular disease, his family said.
The Republican, a former Wyoming congressman and secretary of defense, was already a major player in Washington when then-Texas governor George W. Bush chose him as his running mate in the 2000 presidential race, which Bush won.
Cheney, who served as vice president from 2001 to 2009, fought fiercely to expand the powers of the presidency because he felt that power had been weakened since the Watergate scandal that ousted his onetime boss, Richard Nixon.
He has also expanded the influence of the vice presidency by assembling a national security team that often serves as his center of power within the administration.
Cheney was a strong advocate of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was one of the most outspoken Bush administration officials to warn about the danger posed by Iraq’s alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. No such weapon was found.
He clashed with several senior Bush aides, including secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, and defended “enhanced” interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects that included waterboarding and sleep deprivation.
Others, including the US Senate select committee on intelligence and the UN special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, have described these techniques as torture.
His daughter, Liz Cheney, also became an influential Republican lawmaker, serving in the House of Representatives but losing her seat after opposing Republican President Donald Trump and voting to impeach him following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
His father agreed with him and said he would vote for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in 2024.
Cheney lived with heart problems for most of his life, and at the age of 37 he suffered the first of a series of heart attacks.
He underwent a heart transplant in 2012.
