Dick Cheney’s death a loss to the nation, says George W Bush

Former US President George W Bush has paid tribute to Dick Cheney, saying his death was “a loss to the nation and a sorrow to his friends”.

Cheney died Monday night from complications of pneumonia and cardiovascular disease. When he was 84 years old, his family said the following in a statement.

Under Bush, he became one of the most powerful US vice presidents in history, leaving behind a controversial legacy as a key architect of the “war on terror” and an early proponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

“History will remember him as one of the finest public servants of his generation,” Bush said in a statement.

Bush added that Cheney was “a patriot who brought integrity, high intelligence and seriousness of purpose to every position he held.”

“I relied on him for his honest and clear advice, and he never failed to do his best. He remained true to his beliefs and prioritized the freedom and security of the American people.”

Condoleezza Rice, who served as Secretary of State alongside Cheney in the Bush administration, said she admired him “for his integrity and his love for our country.”

“He was an inspirational presence and mentor who taught me so much about public service,” he wrote to X.

Former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, said: “Although we often disagreed, I always respected his dedication to our country and his unwavering sense of duty.”

Although Cheney was a powerful figure of the Republican Party for many years, he began to harshly criticize the party under the leadership of Donald Trump, who has yet to comment on his death.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said: “Scripture is clear; we give honor where honor is due.”

“Even if we have political differences later in life, you have to honor their sacrifice and service to their country,” he said.

Flags at the White House were lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning, shortly after his death was announced.

In a statement announcing his death, Cheney’s family said he was “a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country and live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness and fly fishing.”

Cheney was a controversial political figure, particularly for his role behind the “war on terror” in which the US invaded Iraq following the 9/11 attacks.

Iraqi writer Sinan Antoon said Cheney’s lasting legacy in the country was “chaos and terrorism”.

“In a different world, Dick Cheney would certainly have been a war criminal and he would have been tried,” he told the BBC’s Newshour programme.

Kristofer Goldsmith, a US Army veteran deployed to Iraq, also told the BBC: “Most people know Dick Cheney as someone who created a huge problem that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.”

Richard “Dick” Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1941 and later attended the prestigious Yale University on a scholarship but did not graduate.

He earned a master’s degree in political science from the University of Wyoming.

He first experienced Washington in 1968, while working for William Steiger, a young Republican representative from Wisconsin.

Cheney became Gerald Ford’s chief of staff in 1975, at the age of 34, before spending a decade in the House of Representatives.

As defense minister under George Bush Snr, he headed the Pentagon during the 1990-91 Gulf War, when the US-led coalition expelled Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

He became George W Bush’s vice-president in 2001 and played a greater role than most of his predecessors in making major policy decisions.

It is for this role that he will be best and arguably most remembered.

During the younger Bush’s administration, he transformed the vice presidency from a traditionally vacant post with little formal power into a de facto vice president, single-handedly overseeing American foreign policy and national security in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

He was a leading advocate of U.S. military action in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Before the invasion of Iraq, Cheney said that Saddam Hussein’s regime allegedly possessed weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons were never found during the military campaign.

He has also repeatedly claimed links between Iraq and Al Qaeda, the terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden that claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks. He said attackers would face the “full wrath” of American military might.

When it took the United States years to recover from the costly war in Iraq that left hundreds of thousands of people dead, Cheney’s key role in the campaign greatly influenced her political legacy.

His political career later became the subject of a major feature film in Vice in 2018; actor Christian Bale won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the former vice president.

Cheney had numerous heart problems throughout his life.

He had his first of many heart attacks in 1978, when he was just 37 years old. At the time, Cheney was campaigning for a seat in the House of Representatives and smoked three packs of cigarettes a day.

In 2010, he had surgery to install a small heart pump to combat “increasing congestive heart failure.”

At this point he had already had five heart attacks. Two years later, Cheney received a full heart transplant.

He is survived by his wife Lynne, daughters Liz and Mary Cheney, and seven grandchildren.

Although he has worked for Republican presidents for decades, he has become a fierce opponent of President Donald Trump.

Cheney, who first endorsed him in 2016, was appalled by allegations of Russian interference in the presidential election and Trump’s seemingly casual attitude toward NATO.

He supported his older daughter, Liz, becoming one of the leading “never Trump” Republicans in the House of Representatives and condemned the refusal to accept the outcome of the 2020 election.

Two months before last year’s US presidential election, Cheney made a major intervention: He announced he would vote for the Democrats’ Kamala Harris.

He said that “there has never been a person who has posed a greater threat to our Republic than Donald Trump.”

In response, Trump called Cheney an “irrelevant RINO”; it was an acronym for “Republican in name only.”

Cheney would become persona non grata in her own party, which had been reshaped in Trump’s image in its final years.

In a strange final twist, his criticism of Trump and endorsement of Harris would earn him praise from some on the left who once denounced him decades ago.