Overview
- Dick Cheney died on Nov. 3, according to his family, who said he passed due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease while surrounded by his wife Lynne and daughters Liz and Mary.
- Across a five‑decade career, he served as Gerald Ford’s White House chief of staff, Wyoming’s lone U.S. representative, secretary of defense overseeing Desert Storm, and vice president from 2001 to 2009.
- As vice president he was a chief architect of the post‑9/11 ‘war on terror’ and a leading advocate for the 2003 Iraq invasion, positions tied to later‑discredited WMD claims and to policies on surveillance, detentions and enhanced interrogation.
- Tributes began flowing from former colleagues, with George W. Bush calling Cheney a “decent, honorable man” and one of the finest public servants of his generation.
- He battled serious heart disease for decades, including multiple heart attacks and a 2012 transplant, and in later years he broke with his party by condemning President Donald Trump and endorsing Kamala Harris in 2024.