Dick Cheney, US VP during September 11 attacks, dies aged 84

Dick Cheney, the influential Republican who served as vice president to George W. Bush, has passed away at the age of 84, his family confirmed on Tuesday, November 4, 2025.

Cheney was the chief architect of America’s “war on terror” and served as the 46th vice president of the United States alongside former President Bush from 2001 to 2009.

He was a well-known critic of incumbent U.S. president Donald Trump, whom Cheney labelled as a “coward and the greatest threat to the Republican party.”

The cause of the former politician’s death is not known yet, but he had several medical conditions. 

He suffered from cardiovascular problems throughout his adult life. Cheney survived a series of heart attacks, ultimately receiving a heart transplant in 2012.

Cheney was in the White House when the planes hit the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, and then he became the chief architect of America’s war on terror. 

He was also responsible for leading the country into an ill-fated Iraq war, a decision that would later reveal itself to be founded on misguided assumptions.

Cheney often said the 9/11 attacks changed him, and he wanted to enforce U.S. power across the Middle East.

In an interview with CNN in 2002, the vice president at that time said, “You knew this was a deliberate, terrorist act and we’ll avenge these attacks.”

Cheney, despite being a conservative Republican endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election and formally retired the same year.