former Republican vice-president who helped lead US “war on terror”

Dick Cheney, who has died on the age of 84, had a glittering – if controversial – profession in American public life.

He served as President Gerald Ford’s White House chief of employees within the Seventies, earlier than spending a decade within the House of Representatives.

President George H W Bush made him defence secretary throughout the first Gulf War and the US invasion of Panama.

In 2001, Cheney grew to become one of the vital highly effective vice-presidents in historical past.

He was a key architect of President George W Bush’s ‘War on Terror’ after the 9/11 terrorist assaults, and an early advocate of the invasion of Iraq.

But, in his last years, he grew to become a bitter critic of the Republican social gathering underneath the management of President Donald Trump.

“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic,” Cheney stated.

Richard Bruce Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on 30 January 1941.

His father labored for the US Department of Agriculture, whereas his mom had been a profitable softball participant within the Thirties.

When he was 13, his household moved to Casper, an oil city in Wyoming. In 1959, Cheney entered Yale on a scholarship, however didn’t graduate.

He confessed that he fell in with “some kindred souls, young men like me who were not adjusting very well [to Yale] and shared my opinion that beer was one of the essentials of life.”

He went on to realize a Master’s diploma in political science from the University of Wyoming however – like his future boss, George W Bush, he continued to social gathering.

In his early 20s, Cheney was twice convicted of drink driving. The incidents targeted his thoughts on the long run.

“I was headed down a bad road if I continued on that course,” he stated.

In 1959, when he grew to become eligible to be drafted for army service, Cheney made probably the most of each authorized avenue to keep away from placing on a uniform.

He obtained a string of deferments, first in order that he may end his faculty course after which when his new spouse, Lynne grew to become pregnant.

“I don’t regret the decisions I made,” he stated later. “I complied fully with all the requirements of the statutes, registered with the draft when I turned 18. Had I been drafted, I would have been happy to serve.”

Surprisingly this didn’t develop into a serious marketing campaign situation when he was operating for the Vice-Presidency, even after Cheney questioned the flexibility of the Democratic presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry – himself a Vietnam veteran – to function commander in chief.

Dick Cheney’s first style of Washington got here in 1968 when he labored for William Steiger, a younger republican consultant from Wisconsin.

Legend has it that he caught the attention of Donald Rumsfeld, former defence secretary, then about to take over on the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) underneath President Richard Nixon.

Rumsfeld mentored Cheney, first within the OEO, after which within the Ford White House.

When Gerald Ford made Rumsfeld his defence secretary in 1975, Cheney discovered himself chief of employees on the White House. He was simply 34 years previous.

Eschewing the usual limousine for his battered VW Beetle, Dick Cheney proved a well-liked and approachable grasp of ceremonies.

“He made the system run,” stated Brent Scowcroft, Ford’s nationwide safety adviser. “Everybody had access to the president, but it was smooth, orderly. He didn’t try to be a deputy president.”

When Ford misplaced the presidency in 1976, Cheney returned to Wyoming and stood for its House of Representatives seat.

But, weeks into the marketing campaign and smoking three packets of cigarettes a day, he had the primary of his many coronary heart assaults.

While he was recuperating, Lynne continued to marketing campaign on his behalf – and Cheney was returned with a powerful 59% of the vote.

During his decade within the House, he gained himself the fame as a drier-than-dry conservative, enthusiastically supporting Ronald Reagan’s large Cold War will increase in defence spending.

More controversially, he opposed the discharge of Nelson Mandela from jail and was certainly one of solely 21 congressmen to vote in opposition to the prohibition of armour-piercing “cop killer” bullets.

Early in 1989, he was given the possibility of upper workplace when President George H W Bush’s nominee for defence secretary, Senator John Tower, was pressured to withdraw amid allegations of heavy consuming and womanising.

Bush wanted a congressman with a great fame to take over on the Pentagon. He selected Dick Cheney and the Senate authorized the selection with out opposition.

Cheney’s years at defence have been among the most momentous because the finish of World War Two. The Berlin Wall and the Soviet empire collapsed and the United States was left to rethink its entire doctrine.

Although hawkish by nature, he oversaw an enormous post-Cold War discount within the army finances – the place the variety of servicemen and girls fell from 2.2 million to 1.8 million.

Most of all, although, his time on the Pentagon will likely be remembered for the 1991 Gulf War with Iraq.

He took the lead in advocating army drive in opposition to Saddam Hussein, whose troops had invaded Kuwait.

He persuaded Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd to permit the deployment of greater than 400,000 United States troops on his territory within the lead-up to Operation Desert Storm.

Dick Cheney flew to Riyadh to plan the assault together with his generals. After a 5 week air marketing campaign, coalition forces started a floor battle.

Within 100 hours, Iraq’s military had been routed.

Generals Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf obtained the ticker-tape parades. But Dick Cheney, as a lot as his troopers, deserved credit score for the success of Desert Storm.

Bill Clinton’s presidential election victory in 1992 noticed Cheney go away Washington as soon as once more.

This time he grew to become CEO of Halliburton, an enormous multinational firm that may be a main provider of apparatus to the oil trade. There he remained, till summoned again to public life by George Bush Jr.

Initially, he was requested to chair the seek for somebody to be vice-president. But, having reviewed his suggestions, the younger presidential candidate requested Dick Cheney if he would be a part of him on the ticket.

After the assaults on 11 September 2001, Cheney was remoted from the president for plenty of weeks – taken to an “undisclosed location” – with a view to safe the succession if George W Bush needs to be killed.

He was a number one advocate of US army motion in each Afghanistan and Iraq. He insisted that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, and noticed his defeat because the ending of previous enterprise.

Cheney was a robust supporter of waterboarding captured terrorist suspects, declaring himself to be a “strong proponent of our enhanced interrogation techniques”.

But it was his shut hyperlinks to, and lengthy expertise in Congress which made him a brand new kind of vice-president. Cheney saved workplaces within the Capitol constructing in addition to close to the commander-in-chief, in order to be on the coronary heart of the legislative course of.

He performed an influential position in conserving Bush’s tax insurance policies conservative, and rolling again environmental protections that have been hampering American companies.

Cheney had the ear of the president always and was by no means sluggish in utilizing his privileged entry to by-pass different senior members of the administration.

He did so to some impact in 2001, when he persuaded Bush to signal an order stripping captured overseas terrorist suspects of their authorized rights.

This was to the anger of the Secretary of State, Colin Powell who first heard concerning the resolution when it was broadcast on the information channel, CNN.

In October 2002, and later in July 2007, whereas President Bush was present process medical procedures, Cheney grew to become performing president for just a few hours underneath the phrases of the twenty fifth Amendment.

But his incapability to shepherd laws by Congress introduced accusations that Cheney was a legal responsibility.

And, though George W Bush stated that he would retain his operating mate for 2004, there was strain in Republican circles to dump him.

The president stood agency and Cheney performed a central position within the decisive victory in opposition to John Kerry and his operating mate John Edwards.

There was one exception to his conservatism which emerged throughout the marketing campaign.

He opposed a constitutional ban on homosexual marriage – supported by President Bush – as a result of his daughter Mary was a lesbian.

Cheney introduced that – though the ultimate resolution needs to be left to particular person states – he was personally in favour of marriage equality. “Freedom means freedom for everyone,” he stated.

His fame grew to become broken when it emerged that Halliburton had received the contract to revive Iraq’s oil trade, and that he was to obtain $500,000 in deferred compensation from the corporate.

More controversy was to comply with. In 2005, his former chief of employees Lewis “Scooter” Libby was indicted on prices regarding the leaking of a CIA agent’s id to the press.

And in 2006, after intense strain from politicians and the media, Cheney was pressured to take duty for by accident taking pictures a looking companion.

Harry Whittington, 78, was left with 30 pellets in his physique, resulting in a minor coronary heart assault. Cheney later referred to as the incident “one of the worst days of my life”.

The unlucky episode grew to become fodder for US late-night comedians and was seized upon by opponents as a harmful political metaphor – exhibiting Cheney blasting away on the improper goal.

The vice-president additionally grew frightened that terrorists may try to assassinate him, by sending an digital sign to his pacemaker – having seen a fictional model of this plot on the TV collection, Homeland.

“I was aware of the danger that existed,” he later wrote. “I knew from the experience we had and the necessity for adjusting my own device that it was an accurate portrayal of what was possible.”

The pacemaker was taken out and changed with one which had no connection to wifi.

After eight-years as vice-president, the person extensively seen because the architect of President Bush’s “war on terror” left workplace in January 2009.

He grew to become a critic of the Obama administration’s nationwide safety insurance policies, opposing plans to shut the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He lashed out at his vice-presidential successor, Joe Biden, calling him “dead wrong” for saying one other assault on the size of 11 September 2001 was unlikely.

After a full coronary heart transplant in 2012, he remained an lively political determine. And, regardless of a long time working for Republican presidents, he grew to become a bitter opponent of President Donald Trump.

Having initially endorsed him in 2016, Cheney was appalled by allegations of Russian interference within the presidential election and Trump’s seemingly informal perspective in direction of Nato.

He supported his older daughter, Liz, as she grew to become a number one Republican ‘by no means Trump’ within the House of Representatives – and condemned the refusal to simply accept the results of the 2020 election.

Dick Cheney later published a statement that he would vote for Kamala Harris within the 2024 presidential election.

It was an motion that assured that he will likely be remembered with combined feelings on either side of the political aisle.

For years, Cheney was a hero to the Republican proper for his forthright method and dry-as-dust ideological beliefs – and reviled by the left, who accused him of working for the pursuits of the oil trade.

But, he ended up supporting homosexual marriage and a Democratic social gathering presidential candidate – whereas his frequent assaults on Trump destroyed his relationship together with his former social gathering.