Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has died at the age of 84 after complications from pneumonia and cardiac disease, his family announced.
Cheney served under President George W Bush from 2001 to 2009, and was considered a chief ‘architect’ on the war on terror in the early 2000s, pushing for an expansion of the war in Iraq.
In a statement, his family said: ‘Richard B Cheney, the 46th Vice President of the United States, died last night, November 3, 2025. His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him when he passed.
‘For decades, Dick Cheney served our nation, including as White House Chief of Staff, Wyoming’s Congressman, Secretary of Defence, and Vice President of the United States.
‘He was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honour, love, kindness and fly fishing.
‘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.’
Cheney was inside the White House when news of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was announced. He told CNN in 2002 he knew it was a ‘deliberate act’.
The attacks led to Cheney pushing for a widening of the war in Iraq, which he believed had weapons of mass destruction.
His campaigning may have stemmed from his stint as Pentagon chief, where he oversaw the Panama invasion of 1989 and Operation Desert Storm in 1991 in Kuwait.
Cheney’s leadership, which led to the fierce interrogation of alleged terrorists in the years after 9/11, faced criticism.
Cheney later expressed ‘no regret’, telling a Senate Intelligence Committee report: ‘I would do it again in a minute.’
‘It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now,’ he said in 2015.
In his later years, he became outspoken about Donald Trump, which led many members of the GOP to call him a ‘traitor’ and ‘coward’. He also voted for Kamala Harris in 2024.
Despite the attacks from the party he served for a lifetime, Cheney was not deterred.
In 2022, he said: ‘In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.
‘He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big. I know it. He knows it, and deep down, I think most Republicans know.’
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