Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who served under George W. Bush and stood as a key figure in the administration’s response to the 9/11 attacks and ensuing “war on terror,” died Monday night. According to a statement from Cheney’s family (via The Hollywood Reporter), the Republican politician’s death was caused by complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. “His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed,” the statement read. “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. 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.” He was 84.
Cheney is widely considered to be one of the most powerful vice presidents in history. After beginning his career in public service under President Nixon in 1969, Cheney would go on to serve under Gerald Ford, spend a decade in the House of Representatives, and serve as George H.W. Bush’s secretary of defense, before joining the younger Bush’s ticket in 2000. Cheney played a larger role than many VPs before him, especially in the wake of 9/11. The VP “was, in effect, the chief operating officer of the younger Bush’s presidency,” AP writes. He was a key architect of the Bush administration’s response to the attacks and helped implement multiple policy decisions—including the expanded use of surveillance and detention—that set the stage for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
While Cheney’s political career came to an end when Bush left office in 2009—by then the VP’s approval ranking had sunk to 13 percent, People reports—he remained in the public eye in the years following. More recently, he joined his daughter, former Republican Representative Liz Cheney, in denouncing Donald Trump. “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” he said in a television ad for Liz. “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.”
In 2018, Cheney became the subject of Adam McKay’s Oscar-nominated film Vice, in which he was played by Christian Bale. Bale was also nominated for his performance.
