Dick Cheney death latest: George W Bush’s influential vice president and architect of the ‘War on Terror’ dies aged 84

During his career, the Nebraska native who made Wyoming his home served in three Republican administrations, first as Gerald Ford’s chief of staff, then as George HW Bush’s secretary of defense and then as George W Bush’s vice president in the aftermath of the bitter 2000 presidential election.

In the wake of the attacks of September 11 2001, Cheney told CNN’s John King that he became a changed man once the second plane hit the World Trade Center.

“At that moment, you knew this was a deliberate act,” he told King. “This was a terrorist act.”

Cheney went on to play a leading role in the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, alleging that the country had launched a program to create weapons of mass destruction.

The administration pushed the notion that the then-Iraqi government under the leadership of dictator Saddam Hussein had ties to Al-Qaeda, which had carried out 9/11.

Despite being regarded as a hugely influential figure in the administration, Cheney’s advocacy for the invasion of Iraq also made him one of the most polarising figures of the time.

He left office with an approval rating of 31 percent, according to the Pew Research Center, primarily due to his role in the 2003 war.

In 2014, he told the Senate Intelligence Committee of the invasion: “I would do it again in a minute.”

The former veep had a long history of heart trouble and had a successful transplant in 2012, which he hailed two years later as “the gift of life itself.”

CNN has been interviewing Dr Jonathan Reiner this morning, Cheney’s physician from 1998 to his passing, who has some warm words for the deceased.

Republicans are taking to social media to salute Cheney, with the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson calling him: “A real Republican, to the last.”

Former Trump administration official Miles Taylor said: “His last act of public service was to defy the GOP as a vocal critic of Donald Trump. That took guts.”

Fox News contributor Guy Benson wrote simply: “RIP Dick Cheney.”

Vice presidents are selected for many reasons, observes Rupert Cornwall in his appreciation of Cheney’s career.

They may balance the ticket, helping the top man in a region or a section of the electorate where he is not strong, just as Lyndon Johnson helped John Kennedy in 1960 to win his home state of Texas (and with it the White House).

Or they may reinforce a candidate’s appeal, just as Al Gore underlined Bill Clinton’s message of youth, energy and new ideas in 1992.

In 2000, Dick Cheney fitted neither model. His home state of Wyoming was a negligible electoral prize, while in contrast to George W Bush’s promises of change, he seemed the incarnation of eternal, bureaucratic Washington – so much so that some feared he would lose, not win, votes for his boss.

Yet, from this unpromising start, he turned himself into the most influential vice president in modern U.S. history, transforming a job once famously described as “not worth a bucket of warm spit” into an American version of the office of prime minister, subordinate to, but almost co-equal of, the presidency itself.

Cheney passed away on Monday, according to his family.

He had been suffering from pneumonia as well as cardiac and vascular disease.

“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing,” the family said.

“We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”

Paul Farrell and Owen Scott have the story.

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s liveblog on the death of Dick Cheney, George W Bush’s powerful vice president from 2001 to 2009 and the architect of the “War in Terror” in response to the 9/11 terror attacks.