Ex vice president was powerful and polarizing

DICK Cheney, the former vice president of the United States, died on Monday night due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family said in a statement. He was 84.

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“For decades, Dick Cheney served our nation, including as White House Chief of Staff, Wyoming’s Congressman, Secretary of Defence, and Vice President of the United States,’ the statement said.

“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. 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 aman”

The hard-charging conservative became one of the most powerful and polarising vice presidents.

The quietly forceful Mr Cheney served father and son presidents, leading the armed forces as defence chief during the Persian Gulf War under President George HW Bush before returning to public life as vice president under Mr Bush’s son, George W Bush.

Mr Cheney was, in effect, the chief operating officer of the younger Mr Bush’s presidency.

He had a hand, often a commanding one, in implementing decisions most important to the president and some of surpassing interest to himself - all while living with decades of heart disease and, post-administration, a heart transplant.

Mr Cheney consistently defended the extraordinary tools of surveillance, detention and inquisition employed in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001.

Years after leaving office, he became a target of President Donald Trump, especially after his daughter Liz Cheney became the leading Republican critic and examiner of Mr Trump's desperate attempts to stay in power after his election defeat and his actions in the January 6 2021 riot at the Capitol.

In a television advert for his daughter, Mr Cheney said: “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.