4:16In the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on April 3, 2007, Vice President Dick Cheney observes President George W. Bush deliver remarks regarding the war appropriation legislation, followed by fielding questions from the press. Larry Downing/Reuters
It was announced by his family that Dick Cheney, the former vice president often viewed by political analysts as the most politically dynamic and powerful to ever hold the office, passed away on Monday evening. He was 84 years old.
Lynne, his wife of 61 years, alongside his daughters, Liz and Mary, and additional family members, were with Cheney on Monday night, his family communicated through a statement. The announcement further noted that the former vice president succumbed to complications stemming from pneumonia, along with heart and blood vessel ailments.
"Dick Cheney was an exceptional man who instilled in his children and grandchildren a profound love for our nation, encouraging them to lead lives marked by bravery, dignity, affection, grace, and a passion for fly fishing," the family expressed. "We are exceedingly thankful for everything Dick Cheney accomplished for our country, and we are deeply grateful to have experienced the love of such a remarkable and distinguished figure."
Cheney dedicated nearly four decades to service in Washington. He held the position of the youngest White House chief of staff under President Gerald Ford; served as Wyoming’s representative in the U.S. House, collaborating with congressional leaders and President Ronald Reagan; was the secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush; and later served two terms as vice president under President George W. Bush, son of the former president.
Dick Cheney, the former vice president, is seen on “Meet the Press” in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 2, 2018.Nbc Newswire/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via
He also held the role of CEO at Halliburton, a Texas-based energy corporation with a worldwide footprint.
Upon the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, Cheney took the initial leadership role during the president’s absence from Washington.
"Once the president was available on the line, I informed him about the Pentagon strike and strongly advised him to avoid Washington," Cheney recounted in his memoir, "In My Time." "The city was under siege, and the White House was a potential target. I realized that he wouldn’t want to appear to be fleeing, but his presence was unnecessary until we gathered more intel on the situation."
He and prominent staff members convened at the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, monitoring the tragic events as they unfolded.
"I was awake into the early hours, contemplating the implications of the attack and our appropriate response," Cheney penned in his memoir. "We had entered a new era and needed an innovative strategy to ensure America’s protection. The initial conflict of the twenty-first century would transcend traditional warfare between nations and armies. It would primarily be a battle against terrorists operating discreetly, undeterred by threats, and prepared to use any means to inflict destruction upon us."
During his time as vice president, Cheney was also acknowledged as the principal strategist behind much of the Bush administration’s policy regarding Iraq.
This archived photograph portrays Dick Cheney in his role as Vice President during an interview on Jan. 27, 2002.Linda Spillers/ABC News
"His level of authority, quite frankly, has no precedent in the history of the republic for someone in that position," John Hulsman, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, shared with ABC’s "Nightline" in 2005.
Cheney articulated that he perceived his role as vice president to be that of an adviser to the president.
"I’m not managing operations, nor am I heading a department or a specific policy area, so my constant external commentary on current issues — offering my opinions, so to speak — might intrude on the roles of other individuals within the administration, particularly those with defined responsibilities," he stated in an interview with ABC News Chief Global Affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz in March 2008, when she was a White House correspondent.
Later, in the 2013 documentary titled "The World According to Dick Cheney," he posed the question, "Which terrorist attacks would you have permitted to proceed simply to avoid being labeled as harsh or unkind? Would you risk numerous lives to protect your reputation, or would you fulfill your duty, prioritizing your foremost responsibility of ensuring the safety of the United States of America and its citizens?"
Following his departure from office, Cheney remained engaged in political matters, while former President George W. Bush chose to return to Texas and refrained from political commentary to avoid "undermining" the incumbent president.
During President Barack Obama’s tenure, Cheney emerged as a vocal critic of the president’s national security strategies, asserting that Obama’s counterterrorism policies diminished the nation’s safety.
"It has consistently been straightforward for evildoers to perpetrate violence, but now a select few have the potential to inflict it on an unprecedented scale," Cheney expressed in his 2011 memoir.
He continued, "In my view, the crucial element is to elect dedicated and conscientious leaders, to heed the words of individuals seeking high office, and to discern whether their promises are merely for popular appeal or if they genuinely prioritize the broader interests of the nation. Although it may be challenging to look beyond appealing assurances, the greater benefit to America is exceptionally significant."
Early life
Richard Bruce Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Jan. 30, 1941, to Richard Herbert Cheney, a U.S. soil conservation agent, and Marjorie Lauraine Dickey Cheney.
At the age of 13, Cheney’s family relocated to Casper, Wyoming, due to his father’s employment. According to his previous U.S. Senate bio, Cheney participated in football and baseball, as well as fishing and rabbit hunting, during his time there. In high school, he was the senior class president and co-captain of the football squad. He also encountered and began dating Lynne Vincent, who would later become his wife and was the school’s homecoming queen.
According to Lynne Cheney, the most notable aspect of Cheney was that he "devoted as much time to listening as he did to speaking, which is quite uncommon for a teenager," as stated in the Senate profile.
Cheney enrolled at Yale University in 1959, having been admitted from Wyoming with a comprehensive scholarship. After three semesters, he lost his scholarship because of poor grades and went back to Wyoming. He found employment as a lineman for an electric utility firm, but according to the Senate profile, he was "going down a dangerous route" after being detained twice for driving while intoxicated. Meanwhile, his future wife had completed her college degree, earned a master’s degree, and made it known to Cheney that she anticipated he would go back to college before they got married.
During a campaign stop on July 26, 2000, in Casper, Wyoming, Dick Cheney, the Republican vice presidential candidate, pays attention while his wife Lynne introduces him in Cheney’s home state.Jeff Mitchell/Reuters
He enrolled in Casper College for two years before earning a bachelor’s degree in 1965 and a master’s degree in 1966 from the University of Wyoming, both in political science.
During the Vietnam War, Cheney received deferments as a student, and subsequently as a registrant with a child, when he was eligible for the draft. This prompted criticism when he later pursued a career in politics.
"In the 1960s, I had different priorities than serving in the military," Cheney told a reporter in 1989, according to The Washington Post.
Cheney declared during a later Senate confirmation hearing for his nomination as Secretary of Defense that he "would have gladly served if called upon."
Cheney completed an internship at the state legislature while still a college student in Wyoming. Each of the state’s political parties funded one of the two internships. While the other intern was involved in the Young Democrats and requested to work for the lower house with its Democratic majority, Cheney’s political views were still developing, and he worked in the Republican-led state Senate.
Cheney remembered in his Senate profile that he "had to know every legislator, be there when they needed you, and remember how they wanted their coffee."
A wealth of political experience
The Cheneys both continued their studies at the University of Wisconsin to earn doctorates. Lynne Cheney received a Ph.D. in British literature, but her husband did not complete his degree in political science. He continued his career in politics, interning for the Republican governor of Wisconsin and then taking an American Political Science Association fellowship to work on Capitol Hill for a year in 1968. He heard Representative Donald Rumsfeld speak during that fellowship and requested to work in his office, but he was turned down.
Cheney recalled in his Senate profile that "he practically threw me out of his office. Don thought of me as a distant, academic, and unrealistic type."
Cheney went on to work for Rep. William Steiger, R-Wis.
Cheney was obliged to divide his year between the House and Senate due to his congressional fellowship. He had made arrangements to join Senator Ted Kennedy’s, D-Mass., staff, but Richard Nixon’s inauguration in 1969 "initiated a series of events that would propel Cheney from a congressional fellow to White House chief of staff in seven quick years," according to his Senate profile page.
When Rumsfeld was appointed to lead the Office of Economic Opportunity, Cheney’s move from Capitol Hill to the White House started. Cheney sent the former congressman an unsolicited memo with recommendations for handling his confirmation hearings, which led to Rumsfeld hiring him. Rumsfeld also held the position of special assistant to the president and took Cheney to the West Wing for daily staff meetings. When Rumsfeld became ambassador to NATO in 1973, Cheney did not go with him to Europe; instead, he kept his family in Washington and worked for an investment consulting company.
Gerald Ford, the vice president and former House Republican leader, appointed Rumsfeld as his chief of staff when Nixon resigned in 1974 as a result of the Watergate scandal. Cheney went back to the White House to work as Rumsfeld’s assistant. Then, as Ford got ready for an arduous campaign to be elected to the office he had assumed after Nixon’s resignation, he made substantial adjustments to his administration. He appointed Rumsfeld as his secretary of defense, replaced Henry Kissinger with his deputy as national security advisor, and promoted Cheney to the position of president’s chief of staff. At age 34, he was the youngest person to ever hold that post.
Cheney went back to Wyoming after Ford lost the election to Jimmy Carter. Although he had considered running for a U.S. Senate seat at first, he was informed that Alan Simpson intended to run and would easily prevail. Cheney diverted his attention to the state’s sole House seat, which had been left open by an incumbent who had declared his retirement. Cheney and his parents, wife, daughters Elizabeth and Mary, and their family dog went on the campaign trail in a Winnebago that he rented. During this campaign, he experienced his first heart attack. His family carried on the campaign while he was sidelined for several weeks, and his popularity rose in the polls.
He secured the Republican nomination for the seat and defeated the Democrat in the general election with 58.6% of the vote. Cheney was re-elected to the seat five times.
He quickly rose through the ranks upon his return to Capitol Hill. He was chosen to lead the House Republican Policy Committee in his second term. According to his Senate profile page, he was a member of the House Intelligence Committee when the Iran-Contra scandal broke, and his staff wrote the minority report, which charged Congress with restricting President Reagan’s authority and claimed that national security would occasionally compel chief executives to "exceed the laws." In 1987, Cheney was chosen by the House Republicans to serve as conference chairman, and in 1987, he was appointed minority whip.
He appeared poised to eventually hold the position of House speaker, even co-authoring a history of the position with his wife. However, when President George H.W. Bush’s nomination of Senator John Tower for secretary of defense was defeated in the Senate, Cheney was suggested as a replacement.
Defense secretary
Cheney joined the Pentagon as the Cold War was coming to an end. The Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet bloc disintegrated during the first Bush administration.
The president declared to reporters, "This aggression against Kuwait will not stand," days after Iraqi troops stormed Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990.
According to Andrew J. Bacevich in "America’s War for the greater Middle East," Cheney and General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. outlined their proposed buildup of US forces during a quickly organized meeting with Saudi Arabia’s king, but Cheney reassured the king that the Americans’ goals were only to defend Saudi Arabia from a potential Iraqi attack.
ARCHIVE PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is seen in the background behind a scaled-down version of the new U.S. Navy aircraft carrier during the USS Gerald R. Ford naming ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington on Jan. 16, 2007.Jason Reed/Reuters
Bacevich wrote that Osama bin Laden, a young Saudi veteran who had just returned from fighting in Afghanistan, was one of the people who disapproved of the king’s choice to accept the offer. He strongly opposed relying on infidels, or non-Muslims, to resolve a conflict between Arabs, Bacevich wrote. He offered to assemble a guerrilla army to liberate Kuwait, but his offer was turned down, and he went into exile, Bacevich wrote.
The operation started with an air campaign that pounded Iraqi forces. Then, on Feb. 23, 1991, Cheney declared the start of the ground war. After Schwarzkopf declared that the allies had achieved a remarkable victory with few casualties, the news coverage was completely cut off. According to his previous Senate profile page, Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Schwarzkopf recommended ending the ground war because the Iraqis were retreating and the US had met its military goals. Cheney defended the decision as a wise course of action that prevented American forces from getting mired in a quagmire.
Bush’s approval rating soared as a result of the victory in the Persian Gulf, but when the economy fell into recession and there was a three-way presidential race in 1992, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton defeated Bush in his bid for re-election.
Cheney went back to Wyoming, but in 1993 he went back to Washington, where he and his wife became senior fellows at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute. He gave running for president some thought and even established a fundraising campaign committee, but he gave up the idea after Republicans took control of Congress in 1994.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, he was appointed chairman and chief executive officer of Halliburton Company in 1995, a technology and service provider to the oil and gas sectors. According to his Senate profile, Halliburton conducted business all over the world, but particularly in the Middle East, where "Cheney’s military and diplomatic contacts could assist the company’s bids for government contracts — some $1.5 billion during his tenure."
Back to Washington
Cheney, who was residing in Texas, declined the opportunity to lead George W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000, but he did consent to oversee the selection procedure for his running mate.
Bush stated in his memoir, "Decision Points," that "Dick did a thorough, careful job, as I anticipated."
Bush wrote that "in my mind, there was always a tenth" after leading the search committee and reducing the list to nine candidates.
He eventually got Cheney to agree to run with him.
Bush declared in his memoir, "Ten years later, I have never regretted my decision to run with Dick Cheney."
The election was held on Nov. 7, 2000, and even though Vice President Al Gore had won the popular vote, the electoral vote was determined by ballots cast in Florida. The results were not official until a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in Bush v. Gore that stopped the recount in Florida and awarded Bush the state’s 25 electoral votes.
Before Inauguration Day, Cheney oversaw Bush’s transition efforts, a task that none of his predecessors had undertaken. He also had a key role in helping to choose the president’s cabinet members.
U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney head back to the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Oct. 1, 2007.Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Cheney served as vice president and worked behind the scenes, playing a key role in the creation of numerous contentious Bush administration policies. He also rose to prominence as the administration’s main negotiator on Capitol Hill, establishing formal offices in both the House and Senate. Early on, the 50-50 division between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate made Cheney’s constitutional authority to cast tie-breaking votes in that body essential, though Republicans soon gained majorities in both houses of Congress.
Bush stated in his memoir that "The actual advantages of choosing Dick became apparent fourteen months later."
On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four planes while Bush was visiting an elementary school in Florida and Cheney was working in the West Wing. Two crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, one struck the Pentagon outside of Washington, and a fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers overpowered the hijackers.
Cheney reportedly watched television as the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center. After receiving reports of a plane headed for Washington that was not communicating with controllers at Reagan National Airport, Secret Service agents rushed the vice president to the emergency operations center. By the time they got there, there were television reports of smoke rising from the Pentagon.
The vice president urged Bush not to go back to Washington and made arrangements for congressional leaders to be taken to a secure location in West Virginia.
Bush recalled that "The calm, composed man I had recruited on that summer day in Crawford stood solid as an oak tree."
'War on terror'
Following the attacks, the Bush administration underwent a transformation. National security was elevated to the top of the agenda. Congress swiftly passed the Patriot Act, granting the government more authority to gather intelligence, in a week. After it was determined that al-Qaeda, led by bin Laden, was responsible for the attacks, the military was dispatched to Afghanistan, where the Taliban had permitted al-Qaeda to operate. Hundreds of suspected terrorists were apprehended, and prisons were built at a U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Iraq emerged as a target in Bush’s so-called war on terror, with certain members of the administration, including Cheney — who told PBS that he was a "strong advocate of going into Iraq" — connecting Iraq to al-Qaeda and asserting that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction. None of these claims were substantiated.
The U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003, signaling the start of a violent uprising and a military operation that lasted nearly ten years.
ARCHIVE PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney addresses Air Force personnel at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois on March 21, 2006.Jason Reed/Reuters
The majority of Bush-Cheney’s second term was focused on the conflict in Iraq and the US "war on terror," of which Cheney was regarded as a primary architect, following the GOP’s narrow victory in the contentious 2004 presidential election.
The invasion of Iraq resulted in Hussein’s capture and subsequent execution, though the final US soldiers would depart after nearly nine years and at a substantial cost. The US Treasury spent more than $800 billion on the war, which resulted in the deaths of almost 4,500 US service members and over 100,000 Iraqis.
Cheney was the target of a possible assassination attempt in 2007, when a suicide bomber attacked a US air base close to Kabul that he was visiting, as the US continued to fight a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. The Taliban asserted that Cheney was the intended target of the attack, which claimed 23 lives.
Cheney’s approval rating made him one of the most unpopular vice presidents in recent memory by the time he left office, as public support for the Iraqi invasion gradually declined.
Cheney would frequently find himself defending the war.
Cheney declared in a 2010 interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on "This Week" that he "deeply believed in the notion that what we did in Iraq was the correct thing to do. It was difficult to complete. It took a while. There were considerable expenses involved. But we got rid of one of the worst dictators of the 20th century."
Controversies
Cheney received criticism for his ties to the energy sector, particularly when Halliburton subsidiaries were given lucrative no-bid contracts in Iraq. In addition, Halliburton was the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into accounting procedures that started when Cheney was in charge of the business.
Other ties between Cheney and the energy industry also caused the Bush administration to be closely scrutinized by the public. Following Enron’s demise, Cheney was urged to testify regarding his interactions with the energy behemoth, but he declined.
His aides were also suspected of leaking the identity of CIA special agent Valerie Plame after her husband wrote a scathing op-ed criticizing the administration. Although Cheney was never implicated, his former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, who testified that Cheney and his superiors had given him the go-ahead to reveal the secret documents, was later found guilty.
His daughter Mary’s sexual orientation became a major topic in the national discussion about gay marriage during the 2004 presidential campaign. This included a public family spat between Mary and Liz, even though the Cheneys’ seldom addressed the private family matter. Cheney disagreed with Bush’s call for a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage, instead supporting a state-based approach.
He declared at a campaign rally in 2004 that "With regard to the matter of relationships, my broad view is that freedom extends to all. People should have the freedom to form any kind of relationship they choose."
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
