Former Vice President Dick Cheney has died at 84. His family confirmed his death in a statement today, stating he had complications with pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. May the most powerful and polarizing conservative Vice President in U.S. history rest in peace.
Cheney in the White House
Cheney served in both Bush presidencies. Under President George H.W. Bush, he was a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq while serving as the Defense Secretary during the Persian Gulf War. He later returned triumphantly to a Republican administration serving as the Vice President to George W. Bush, the former President’s son.
Cheney was considered very influential during his time as vice president; some may say he made more important decisions than the president. He was the chief operating officer while battling heart disease, an illness that would continue to plague him after leaving the administration. Although he was ill for decades, he managed to consistently defend the Bush administration’s response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Those responses included surveillance tools, detention, and interrogation tactics.
George W. Bush made a statement following the tragic news and described Cheney as a “decent, honorable man” whose death was “a loss to the nation.” He said, “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.”
True Republicanism
Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, became targets of President Donald Trump when Liz became a forceful Republican critic of Trump’s attempts to stay in office after losing the 2020 election and inciting violence on January 6, 2021.
“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said during a television ad in support of his daughter. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward.”
The 2024 presidential election was an eye-opening time for a lot of Americans, especially the Democrats, when Cheney announced he would be casting his vote for Kamala Harris instead of Trump. He stood up for what he believed in, even while the rest of his party continued to turn a blind eye to the anti-Americanism happening before us.
The Rise of Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, to a longtime Agriculture Department worker. After his family moved to Casper, Wyoming, he was the senior class president and co-captain of the football team at Casper High School. He received a full scholarship to Yale, which he took advantage of for a whole year before failing out.
He moved back to his hometown and started school at the University of Wyoming. Later on, he reconnected with his high school sweetheart, Lynee Anee Vincent, whom he married in 1964. Together, they had two daughters, Liz and Mary.
Cheney began his political career in 1969 when he moved to Washington to be a congressional intern. He then moved to the Nixon White House where he first served as an assistant to Donald Rumsfeld in the Office of Economic Opportunity.
He later served in Gerald Ford’s White House rising to become the youngest modern day Chief of Staff ever at age 34. Cheney remained chief of staff for 14 months before returning to his hometown of Casper, Wyoming, to run for the state’s lone congressional seat. While running, he suffered a mild heart attack, but managed to gain victory and win the next five terms.
In 1989, Cheney was the Defense Secretary during the first Bush administration, including during the Persian Gulf War from 1990 to 1991. Between the Bush administrations, Cheney led a large oil industry engineering and construction company, the Halliburton Corporation. In 2001, he began his role as Vice President under the second Bush administration and became known for holding significant power and influencing important decisions. He was nicknamed “Darth Vader” by late-night comedians for his ruthlessness.
Later Years
After he left office at the end of 2009, he remained on the political train until the end. In that time, he suffered five heart attacks until he received a heart transplant in 2012. When he recovered, he continued his activism by defending the actions taken during the Bush administration and criticizing President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, During the first Trump presidency, he backed his daughter Liz in critiquing Trump, and also supported same-sex marriage, thus standing by his other daughter, Mary, who is a lesbian.
