Dick Cheney

Dick Cheney
Born	January 30, 1941 Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.
Died	November 3, 2025 (age 84) North Virginia, U.S.
Cause of death	Pneumonia
Political orientation	Imperialism
Political party	Republican

Richard Bruce Cheney (January 30, 1941 – November 3, 2025) was a Statesian politician and war criminal who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. Known as the "most powerful vice president in American history", Cheney played a key role in supporting U.S. imperialism, particularly in causing the War on terror, and subsequently the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War.

As Vice-President, Cheney worked to consolidate the President's authority into absolute power over the executive, believing that the Presidency was an elective monarchy. Cheney used this executive he built up through shadow control over the bureaucracy, to commit war crimes in Iraq, most notably the CIA torture program, with no consequences. Later in life Cheney would hypocritically decry Donald Trump's use of the power and tactics Cheney created, as "a threat to our republic."

Vice presidency

In the 2000 Presidential election Cheney was selected to find a running mate for Bush, and he chose himself as the Republican vice presidental candidate. The election was marred by corruption but the pair succesfully managed to get themselves into office regardless of the law.

The 9/11 attacks occured early into Bush's Presidency, during these attacks Cheney took the unusual decison of taking military command and ordering the shoorting down of United Airlines Flight 93. In the aftermath of these attacks Cheney increased his own power and became the architect of the decision to use the attacks as a convenient excuse to start a "War on terror". Cheney placed a particular focus on Iraq, which he falsely claimed, without evidence, had both nuclear weapons and was involved in the 9/11 attacks through supposed links to al-Qaeda, meanwhile the actual links to Saudi Arabia were ignored.

Conservative estimates of the costs of the wars that Cheney championed put the death toll at nearly a million direct deaths, a large proportion of which were civilians, as well as trillians of dollars in spending. Cheney and his advisors argued that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to detainees captured in the War on terror, a distinction that he used to justify the CIA's interrogation program and the use of the torture tactics such as waterboarding, the latter Cheney described in 2006 as a “no‑brainer.”

Later life

After his vice presidency Cheney remained a influential figure over the Republican Party, supporting both the party and the political career of his daughter Liz Cheney. After the January 6 insurection in 2021, Cheney ironically appeared as an opponent of Donald Trump, declaring him a threat to democracy, and giving his daughter help in her conflict with Trump. This conflict led him to endorse Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, which was gleafully accepted by Harris who began helping to rehabilitate Cheney's reputation.

Cheney died in Northern Virginia on November 3, 2025, at the age of 84 after experiencing complications related to pneumonia and vascular disease. Cheney faced no punishment for his crimes during his lifetime and instead was offered condolences upon his death by politicians including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bill Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi.