The former US vice president played a crucial role in planning and overseeing the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein
Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has died from complications of pneumonia and heart and vascular disease, his family said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Richard B. Cheney, the 46th Vice President of the United States, died last night, November 3, 2025. He was 84 years old,” the statement reads. “His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed. The former Vice President died due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.”
Serving under former US President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, Cheney was one of the chief architects of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. He strongly advocated the claim that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, which was later discredited. Cheney also pushed for the broader ‘war on terror’, approved the use of torture on terrorist suspects, and greenlighted the warrantless monitoring of Americans’ phone calls and emails.
He left office with one of the lowest approval ratings ever recorded for a US vice president, according to major US pollsters, but expressed no regrets over his policy choices, insisting he did what was necessary after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 2,800 people.
“I would do it again in a minute,” he said in 2014, responding to a Senate report that condemned the CIA’s interrogation methods as brutal, ineffective, and damaging to America’s global standing.
Critics argue that Cheney’s aggressive foreign policy and role in the Iraq War had lasting, damaging effects on the US and the world. The invasion, they say, created a power vacuum that fueled sectarian violence, destabilized the Middle East, and helped spawn extremist groups like ISIS. The war left more than 4,600 US troops and up to 300,000 Iraqi civilians dead, with some studies estimating over 500,000 total war-related deaths.
Cheney suffered from severe cardiovascular disease for much of his adult life and survived multiple heart attacks. His first heart attack occurred in 1978 when he was just 37.
He suffered four more, leading to several surgeries, including bypass operations, angioplasties, and the implantation of a left ventricular assist device in 2010 before receiving a heart transplant in 2012.
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