Former US Vice-President Dick Cheney, a key architect of George W. Bush's 'war on terror' and an early advocate of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, has died at the age of 84.
He died from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease on Monday night, his family said.
Cheney served as Gerald Ford's White House chief of staff in the 1970s and later became one of the most powerful US vice presidents in history under Bush.
In his later years, he became a bitter critic of the Republican party under the leadership of Donald Trump.
Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honour, love, kindness, and fly fishing, his family said in a statement.
Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1941 and attended Yale University on a scholarship, though he did not graduate. He gained a Master's degree in political science from the University of Wyoming.
His political career began in 1968 when he worked for William Steiger, a Republican representative from Wisconsin. He became chief of staff under Ford at just 34 and later spent a decade in the House of Representatives.
As secretary of defense under George H.W. Bush, he oversaw the Pentagon during the Gulf War, which evicted Iraqi troops from Kuwait. He later became VP to George W. Bush in 2001, transforming the role into a de facto deputy presidency.
Cheney's legacy is complex, heavily influenced by his support for military action in Afghanistan and Iraq after the September 11 attacks. His assertions of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have received substantial criticism, as such weapons were never found.
In his final years, Cheney criticized Trump and supported his daughter Liz in her 'never Trump' stance. He controversially endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris, stating, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. This marked his decline within the party he once dominated.
