Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who served multiple Republican presidents before helping President George W. Bush lead the country into the global war on terrorism, died Monday, his family said.
Mr. Cheney, 84, laid claim to being one of the most powerful vice presidents in American history.
He was also a deeply polarizing figure. His critics, and some admirers, viewed him as the power behind the Bush White House, pushing the aggressive retaliations that became the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and engulfed much of the Middle East.
More recently, he split with the party that once embraced him — as a congressman, a defense secretary and running mate to Mr. Bush — by decrying the ascendance of President Trump and siding with his daughter, Liz Cheney, in her losing battle for the soul of the Republican Party.
The break was so extreme that Mr. Cheney pointedly announced last year that he would vote for the Democratic Party nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, instead of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cheney’s family said he died from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.
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“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness and fly fishing,” the family said in a statement Tuesday announcing the death. “We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”
Mr. Bush called Mr. Cheney a “decent, honorable man” and a “calm and steady presence.”
“History will remember him as among the finest public servants of his generation — a patriot who brought integrity, high intelligence and seriousness of purpose to every position he held,” the former president said.
Mr. Cheney was chief of staff to President Ford. In the late 1970s, he won a seat in Congress from Wyoming and served until President George H.W. Bush appointed him as defense secretary. He oversaw the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the first war against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
He pondered a run for president in 1996 but decided against it.
Mr. Cheney emerged again in 2000 as a critical adviser to Mr. Bush. He led the search committee to select a vice presidential candidate before ultimately becoming the nominee himself, lending what at the time was deemed “gravitas” to the Republican ticket.
He was an unusual figure for a vice president. He expressed no ambition to succeed the president and instead claimed a large portfolio for himself.
He said the arrangement was Mr. Bush’s wish, and for years it seemed to work for both men.
The deal faltered in Mr. Bush’s second term as Afghanistan reconstruction stalled and the insurgency in the Iraq War worsened, costing more American lives. The debate over the engagements turned politically sour in Washington.
Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was convicted of lying and obstructing justice in the outing of a CIA officer, Valerie Plame. Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush later had a falling-out over the president’s decision to commute the sentence but not pardon Mr. Libby.
Mr. Cheney was one of the first prominent Republicans to embrace an openness to same-sex marriage. He broke with Mr. Bush’s position during their 2004 reelection campaign.
Mr. Cheney’s other daughter, Mary, was in a same-sex relationship, and he said, “People ought to be free to choose any arrangement they want.”
Yet it was the war on terrorism that defined Mr. Cheney and, to a large extent, the Bush presidency.
In the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, Mr. Cheney’s whereabouts were closely guarded, and he was said to be at an “undisclosed location.” That became the subject of intense comedic interest and was even featured in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch.
He became seen as the most prominent defender of harsh interrogation tactics such as waterboarding that were used on terrorism suspects.
Years after he left office and after the government had renounced some of those tactics, Mr. Cheney still defended them, though he said he didn’t consider them to cross the line into “torture.”
“I’d do it again in a minute,” he said in a 2014 interview with NBC, in which he revealed just how searing the 2001 terrorist attack was for him.
Torture, he said, “is an American citizen on his cellphone making a last call to his four young daughters shortly before he burns to death in the upper levels of the Trade Center in New York on 9/11.”
Mr. Cheney also made unfortunate headlines in 2006 when, while on a quail hunting trip in Texas, he shot a fellow hunter, 78-year-old Harry Whittington.
By the time Mr. Trump emerged as the Republican Party’s undisputed leader after the 2016 election, Mr. Cheney was a man without a political home.
Liz Cheney won a seat in Congress in 2016, continuing the family’s political legacy, but she was ousted from the Republican congressional leadership over disagreements with Mr. Trump and lost her seat in the 2022 elections.
Mr. Cheney’s endorsement last year of Ms. Harris was met with derision on both the right and the left. Some Democrats cringed at having the support of a man they had derided as torturer in chief.
Flags at the White House were lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning to honor Mr. Cheney, who is survived by his wife, Lynne, and two daughters.
The White House was otherwise reticent.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr. Trump was “aware” of the death and said flags had been lowered “in accordance to statutory law.”
Those who worked with Mr. Cheney recalled a highly capable and determined, though personally reserved, politician.
Rep. Jodey Arrington, a Texas Republican who served as a staffer in the Bush White House, said Mr. Cheney “spoke sparingly” but said “the few words he offered were usually the most insightful ones in the room.”
“Everyone respected him,” Mr. Arrington said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who worked with Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush to rescue the war effort in Iraq in the second term, called the former vice president “one of the smartest people I’ve ever known.”
“He had a unique ability to handle criticism from all corners of the political spectrum,” Mr. Graham said. “This is best explained by his tremendous sense of confidence in who he was and what he believed. When that self-confidence clashed with members of both parties, he was unshaken.”
Sen. John Barrasso hailed his fellow Wyomingite as a “towering figure.”
“His unflinching leadership shaped many of the biggest moments in domestic and U.S. foreign policy for decades,” the Republican said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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