Dick Cheney, former US vice president who pushed for Iraq war, dies at 84 Azad News HD
Dick Cheney Dies at 84: The Architect of Modern American Power and the Shadow of the Iraq War
In a moment that closes a defining and controversial chapter in American political history, Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney, the formidable strategist, power broker, and former Vice President of the United States, has died at the age of 84, his family announced on Tuesday. Known as one of the most influential and polarizing figures to ever occupy the vice presidency, Cheney leaves behind a legacy marked by unprecedented authority, fierce conviction, and the deep scars of wars that reshaped the 21st century.
His passing marks the end of an era in American conservatism — an era in which the pursuit of unchallenged national security and global dominance became the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. Cheney’s career spanned over four decades, traversing multiple Republican administrations, from President Richard Nixon to George W. Bush. Yet it was his role as Vice President from 2001 to 2009 that defined him — as the chief architect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the relentless advocate of expanded executive power, and the silent force steering the machinery of American war and surveillance.
In the words of historians, Dick Cheney was not simply a vice president — he was a co-president in all but name, a man who operated in the shadows yet shaped the course of history with an iron will and an unyielding belief in American primacy.
Early Life: The Making of a Political Strategist
Born on January 30, 1941, in Lincoln, Nebraska, and raised in Casper, Wyoming, Dick Cheney’s humble origins stood in sharp contrast to the monumental influence he would later wield in Washington. His father worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and his upbringing in the rugged, independent culture of Wyoming forged his early conservatism and pragmatism.
Cheney attended Yale University but dropped out due to academic difficulties. Later, he earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from the University of Wyoming. His early political awakening was shaped during the turbulent 1960s — a time when the United States grappled with civil rights movements, the Vietnam War, and the counterculture revolution.
In 1968, Cheney entered Washington’s political scene as an intern in the Nixon administration. From there, his meteoric rise began. He quickly established himself as a disciplined, intelligent, and fiercely loyal bureaucrat who valued control and discretion over charisma and publicity.
The Ford Years: A Trusted Power Operator
Cheney’s big break came when he joined the staff of Donald Rumsfeld, then Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. When Rumsfeld became Chief of Staff to President Gerald Ford, Cheney followed him — and when Rumsfeld was appointed Secretary of Defense in 1975, Cheney replaced him as White House Chief of Staff, becoming one of the youngest ever to hold the position.
At just 34, Cheney was already at the center of American power. His time under Ford solidified his reputation as a pragmatic conservative who valued efficiency and loyalty. It also taught him how to navigate Washington’s bureaucratic machinery — a skill that would later define his political dominance.
During this period, Cheney developed his lifelong skepticism of Congress and his firm belief in executive authority. He saw how post-Watergate reforms sought to curtail presidential powers, and he viewed those efforts as dangerous overcorrections. This conviction — that the presidency had been weakened and needed restoration — would later guide his actions during the Bush administration.
Congressman from Wyoming: The Conservative Foundation
After Ford’s defeat in 1976, Cheney returned to Wyoming, where he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978. Serving for a decade, he became one of the most respected Republican lawmakers of his generation. Known for his intelligence, discipline, and measured tone, Cheney was conservative but not theatrical — a policy maker more than a politician.
As a member of the House Intelligence Committee and later as House Minority Whip, Cheney built relationships across party lines but remained firmly committed to a strong national defense. He opposed efforts to reduce military spending during the Cold War and supported President Ronald Reagan’s aggressive foreign policy against the Soviet Union.
His congressional career also revealed his caution toward foreign interventions. During the late 1980s, he expressed skepticism about U.S. involvement in Lebanon and the Iran-Contra affair. Ironically, those views would evolve dramatically in the following decade, once Cheney found himself at the helm of American defense policy.
Secretary of Defense: The Gulf War and the New World Order
When President George H.W. Bush appointed Cheney as Secretary of Defense in 1989, he inherited a world on the brink of transformation. The Cold War was ending, the Soviet Union was collapsing, and the United States was emerging as the world’s sole superpower.
Cheney’s tenure was defined by the 1991 Gulf War, after Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Cheney, working closely with General Colin Powell and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, oversaw Operation Desert Storm, the swift and decisive U.S.-led military campaign that liberated Kuwait in just six weeks.
The Gulf War was hailed as a military triumph and a showcase of American technological superiority. Yet even then, Cheney demonstrated restraint. He opposed marching into Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussein, arguing that doing so would destabilize Iraq and embroil the United States in a prolonged occupation. “I think to occupy Iraq would be a quagmire,” he said in 1992 — words that would later return to haunt him.
Cheney left office in 1993 with widespread respect for his management of the Pentagon and his prudence in limiting U.S. intervention.
The Private Sector Years: Halliburton and Corporate Power
After leaving government, Cheney entered the corporate world, becoming CEO of Halliburton, one of the world’s largest oilfield services companies. Under his leadership from 1995 to 2000, Halliburton expanded its international reach and secured lucrative government contracts, particularly in the energy and defense sectors.
Cheney’s time at Halliburton connected him deeply to global oil interests and the nexus between business and government — relationships that critics later claimed influenced his foreign policy decisions.
When asked about politics during this time, Cheney appeared detached from public office. “I’ve been there, done that,” he famously said. But history had other plans.
The 2000 Election: The Return to Power
In 2000, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush tapped Cheney to lead his vice-presidential search committee. After months of vetting others, Bush ultimately chose Cheney himself as his running mate — a decision that would profoundly reshape U.S. history.
When Bush and Cheney narrowly won the presidency after the contested Florida recount, few could have anticipated that Cheney would soon wield unprecedented influence within the White House.
Unlike previous vice presidents who played largely ceremonial roles, Cheney became the most powerful vice president in American history. He controlled personnel appointments, influenced defense and intelligence policy, and established his own shadow network of advisors operating parallel to official government structures.
Then came September 11, 2001 — the day that transformed Cheney from a bureaucratic tactician into the chief architect of a global war.
After 9/11: The Rise of the Imperial Vice President
The terrorist attacks on September 11 were, for Cheney, the defining moment of his career. As hijacked planes struck New York and Washington, he took command from an underground bunker, issuing shoot-down orders for any additional hijacked aircraft.
In the days that followed, Cheney became the driving force behind what he saw as a new doctrine of “preventive war” and expanded executive power. He argued that the U.S. could not afford to wait for threats to materialize; it must strike first and act decisively.
Cheney was the intellectual engine behind the “war on terror”, championing policies that expanded surveillance, sanctioned enhanced interrogation (widely condemned as torture), and justified indefinite detention of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
He also pushed the legal framework that allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct warrantless wiretapping — asserting that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, possessed “inherent authority” to bypass congressional oversight during wartime.
His philosophy was encapsulated by a chilling statement:
“We have to work the dark side, if you will. Spend time in the shadows.”
Cheney believed that the world had changed irrevocably and that America needed to fight without restraint to ensure its survival.
The Iraq War: The Defining Controversy
While 9/11 justified war in Afghanistan, it was Iraq that became Cheney’s obsession. Convinced that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and had links to al-Qaeda, Cheney made the case that regime change in Baghdad was essential to U.S. security.
Together with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and neoconservative allies like Paul Wolfowitz, Cheney shaped the Bush administration’s march to war in 2003. He was instrumental in building the intelligence narrative — one that would later collapse under scrutiny — that Iraq possessed WMDs and posed an imminent threat.
In speeches and media appearances, Cheney presented the war as a moral and strategic imperative. “There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction,” he asserted on national television.
The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 initially appeared successful. Baghdad fell within weeks, and Saddam was captured later that year. But the occupation that followed descended into chaos, with sectarian violence, insurgency, and years of bloodshed that claimed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives and over 4,000 American soldiers.
No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. The war’s justification collapsed, but Cheney remained unrepentant. “I’d do it again,” he said years later. “The world is better off without Saddam Hussein.”
For many Americans, however, Iraq became a symbol of deceit, hubris, and the human cost of empire.
Power and Secrecy: The Shadow Presidency
Throughout the Bush years, Cheney operated as the power behind the throne. He preferred to work quietly, often bypassing the traditional chain of command. His influence over national security, defense contracts, and intelligence was immense.
He built a network of loyalists across government agencies — including the Pentagon, CIA, and National Security Council — ensuring that his views shaped nearly every major policy decision.
Historians later described Cheney’s vice presidency as a “parallel government.” While President Bush projected optimism and faith-based rhetoric, Cheney embodied cold realism and fear-driven logic. His worldview, shaped by decades in Washington, held that the U.S. must dominate or be dominated.
Fall from Grace: The Waning Years of the Bush Administration
By Bush’s second term, Cheney’s influence began to wane. Mounting casualties in Iraq, global outrage over torture and secret prisons, and revelations about domestic surveillance eroded public trust.
Within the administration, figures like Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates began to push for diplomacy and recalibration, sidelining Cheney’s hawkish stance. Yet, even as his power diminished, Cheney never softened his position.
After leaving office in 2009, he became an unapologetic defender of the Bush legacy, arguing that history would vindicate their decisions. “We kept America safe,” he insisted repeatedly.
Later Years: Heart Troubles and Legacy Battles
Cheney’s health had long been fragile. He suffered his first heart attack at age 37 and would endure several more over the decades, ultimately receiving a heart transplant in 2012. Despite his ailments, he remained active in politics, advising Republican lawmakers and commenting on national security issues.
He co-authored a memoir, In My Time, offering his unapologetic defense of his actions. He later appeared in the 2018 biographical film Vice, which portrayed him as a calculating and manipulative political operator — a portrayal that sparked both outrage and fascination.
To his critics, Cheney symbolized the dark side of American power: secrecy, militarism, and the erosion of civil liberties. To his admirers, he was a patriot who did what was necessary to protect his country in an age of terror.
Family Statement and National Reaction
Cheney’s family announced his death in a brief statement, describing him as “a devoted husband, father, and grandfather who served his nation with steadfast conviction.” His daughter, Liz Cheney, herself a prominent Republican and former congresswoman, praised her father’s “uncompromising integrity and love for America.”
Reactions across the political spectrum were complex and divided. Former President George W. Bush called Cheney “a man of courage, intellect, and deep patriotism.” Others, including war veterans and human rights activists, expressed sorrow mixed with anger, recalling the devastating human toll of the Iraq War.
Historians, meanwhile, reflected on Cheney’s paradoxical legacy — one of extraordinary influence but lasting controversy.
Legacy: The Man Who Redefined the Vice Presidency
Few figures in American history have so completely reshaped the office of vice president. Cheney turned a traditionally ceremonial role into one of immense operational power. His ability to command bureaucratic machinery, shape foreign policy, and redefine the parameters of executive authority set a precedent for future administrations.
Yet his greatest legacy — the War on Terror — remains a moral and strategic quagmire. The policies he championed — from torture to surveillance — sparked global debates about freedom, security, and the limits of democracy itself.
Cheney’s vision of an America unbound by international constraint inspired both fear and admiration. For some, he was a necessary realist in a dangerous world. For others, he was the embodiment of unchecked power, the man who blurred the line between defense and domination.
Conclusion: A Legacy of Power and Paradox
As the news of Dick Cheney’s death at 84 reverberates across the world, America once again confronts the shadow of its post-9/11 past. His life was a study in contrasts — a man of intellect and secrecy, conviction and controversy, patriotism and power.
Cheney believed deeply in America’s exceptionalism, yet his policies exposed the moral ambiguities of that belief. He reshaped the presidency, waged wars that toppled tyrants, and built a security apparatus that still defines global geopolitics.
But he also left behind questions that remain unanswered: How much power should one man wield in a democracy? And how far can a nation go in the name of security before it compromises its soul?
