Dick Cheney, whose campaign for a military response to the 9/11 terror attack cleared the path for an unpopular war in Iraq and established his reputation as one of the most powerful and polarizing vice presidents in US history, has died. He was 84.
“The former vice president died due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease,” according to a family statement released early Tuesday. His wife, Lynne, and daughters Liz and Mary were with him when he died on Monday night, the family said.
As George W. Bush’s vice president from 2001 to 2009, Cheney embodied the single-minded determination to do whatever was necessary to prevent further acts of terrorism on US soil. A veteran of three previous presidential administrations, including a stint as secretary of defense for Bush’s father, he was given wide berth and deference on the military issues that dominated Bush’s tenure, accumulating influence rarely seen in a vice president.
He had come to office intent on reinvigorating the US presidency, which he believed had been weakened by the War Powers Act and other legislation in the 1970s inspired by the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. The Sept. 11, 2001, attack by al-Qaeda, which killed about 3,000 people, infused Cheney’s long-standing political goal with a new focus on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
Over the course of his life, Cheney suffered five heart attacks starting in 1978, and in March 2012, following 20 months on a waiting list, he received a heart transplant.
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