TRANSCRIPT:
Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has died at the age of 84.
In a statement, his family says he died from complications related to pneumonia and cardiovascular disease.
Considered one of the most powerful and divisive Vice President's in US history, his legacy drew both praise and condemnation.
CHIEF JUSTICE WILLIAM HOBBES RANQUIST: "Mr. Cheney, are you ready to take the oath?"
DICK CHENEY: "I am."
RANQUIST: "Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Richard Bruce Cheney, do solemnly swear."
CHENEY: "I, Richard Bruce Cheney, do solemnly swear."
RANQUIST: "That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States."
CHENEY: "That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States."
RANQUIST: "Against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
CHENEY: "Against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
After moving to Washington in 1968 and working in the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George Bush, he became Vice President under George W. Bush in 2001.
Known as the architect of the US invasion of Iraq, it was Dick Cheney's false claims that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction that created the impetus for America's so-called War on Terror.
"In the case of Iraq, we have a regime that is busy enhancing its capabilities in the field of chemical and biological agents and is by all available evidence speeding up its nuclear weapons program."
To his supporters, he was a committed public servant who devoted much of his life to the White House.
American Studies Professor at University College Dublin, Scott Lucas, says Cheney saw national security as a way to project power overseas.
"But the idea was, is that America had to defend itself by intervening abroad when there was a clear threat to international security and Iraq posed that threat in the early 1990s. In 2001, that wasn't the case. It wasn't the case that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. He was a horrible, horrible man, especially to Iraqis. But it was others who were involved in 9/11. And Cheney and Rumsfeld used that as a pretext to go beyond the Reagan tradition of foreign policy. America had to be seen as the superpower, the only superpower. And in a way, they had to do it beyond the international system."
To critics, like left-wing commentator Hasan Piker and right-wing commentator Alex Jones, he's been described as one of the most evil men in modern history.
Despite no evidence of WMDs in Iraq and the arrest of Saddam Hussein in 2003, US combat forces remained in Iraq till their official withdrawal in 2011.
The military invasion and occupation, widely regarded as a mistake, eventually killed hundreds of thousands of people, including thousands of U-S troops, but mostly Iraqi civilians.
In Baghdad, where US troops remain to this day, residents like Hadi Chelo say Dick Cheney played a major role in destabilising the Middle East.
“I don’t think that any American official has a good memoir inside Iraq, or that any Iraqi remembers them in a good way, especially Dick Cheney, in which he contributed largely to undermining the stability in the Middle East area, and entered the area into a political, social, and economic maze, along with huge fluctuations. Therefore, today one of the most prominent American leaders have passed away, and he was a part of the American political apparatus which played a main role in changing the political system structure of Iraq in 2003.”
Dick Cheney is also remembered for his unapologetic attitude towards torture in US run prisons.
Established in 2002 to detain suspected terrorists after 9/11, Guantanamo Bay has been described by human rights groups as a symbol of torture and gross human rights abuses.
In 2004, Abu Ghraib, a maximum security prison in Iraq, was used by the US to “interrogate suspects” after it invaded Iraq.
After detailed reports revealed graphic evidence of the torture and misconduct in these facilities, Dick Cheney said he'd do it again.
"What we did in Iraq was exactly the right thing to do. If I had it to recommend all over again, I would recommend exactly the same course of action. The world is far safer today because Saddam Hussein is in jail, his government is no longer in power. And we did exactly the right thing."
Garret Martin is a professor at American University's School of International Service.
He says it was Cheney's unapologetic attitude that solidified his reputation for cruelty.
“Because he was very much a proponent of some of the more controversial policies of, you know, the George W. Bush administration, whether you're thinking about sort of enhanced interrogations or torture, essentially. If you're thinking about sort of surveillance, the Patriot Act or surveillance, also domestic spying on Americans and of course, his most hawkish line on the war in Iraq and being largely unapologetic about it. I think many of those issues, I think, played into that perception of Dick Cheney not being the most sympathetic character to his opponents.”
Despite his reputation as a hard-right and life-long Republican, Dick Cheney is more recently known for being an outspoken critic of current Republican President Donald Trump.
During the 2024 election campaign, he voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and warned voters that Donald Trump was a dangerous man.
"In our nation's 246-year history, there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our Republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal our last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him."
The White House lowered flags to half-staff following the news of Cheney's death, but President Donald Trump has not issued a statement.
Senator John Barrasso, the number two in Senate Republican leadership, says Mr Cheney's career has few peers in American life.
"His unflinching leadership shaped many of the biggest moments in domestic and U.S. foreign policy for decades. Dick is going to be remembered as a towering figure who helped guide the course of history, certainly in Wyoming and also in the United States and, of course, around the world."
