Dick Cheney, Nebraska native who served as vice president, dies at 84

Dick Cheney, a Nebraska native and conservative Republican who served George W. Bush and went on to be a critic of President Donald Trump, died Monday at 84.

A statement from the family said Cheney died from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.

Cheney was born in Lincoln and grew up in a home near 44th and Van Dorn streets. He was the son of a soil-conservation worker for the Agriculture Department. His family moved to Casper, Wyoming, when he was 13, and that was the state where he launched his political career.

He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 10 years before becoming Secretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush and later vice president under George W. Bush.

In a statement on Cheney’s death, President George W. Bush said the passing of his former VP “is a loss to the nation and a sorrow to his friends. Laura and I will remember Dick Cheney for the decent, honorable man that we was.”

After moving to Wyoming, Cheney was elected as the senior class president and football co-captain in Casper. He nabbed a full scholarship at Yale, but left after a year due to failing grades. He returned to Wyoming to work as a lineman for a power company.

He got into politics first as an intern in Congress in 1969. He worked his way up the White House, eventually becoming the chief of staff for fellow Nebraskan Gerald Ford, who served as president from 1974 to 1977.

In 1978, Cheney took office himself after winning a race for Congress in Wyoming. It was around that same time Cheney suffered a series of heart attacks, which began his decades of living with heart disease and eventual heart transplant. Cheney served in Congress for a decade and eventually gave up his seat to become secretary of defense for President George H.W. Bush.

As secretary of defense, Cheney directed Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East, a military operation to liberate Kuwait after an Iraqi invasion. A number of people felt the U.S. should have continued the fight against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and toppled his regime. Cheney exited the administration when Democrat Bill Clinton beat President Bush in 1992.

In 2000, Cheney returned to politics when George W. Bush announced he plucked Cheney to run as his vice president. According to an obituary by NPR’s Don Gonyea, some speculated that Cheney was really leading operations at the White House. He served as President Bush’s primary adviser and dramatically helped shape the White House’s policy decisions.

In the last years of his life, Cheney was a critic of President Trump and his new Republican brand of populist politics. Trump returned criticisms of the former VP, saying Cheney launched “forever wars.” Rep. Liz Cheney continued in her father’s footsteps by voting for Trump’s impeachment following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by people disgruntled by the former president’s election loss.

Cheney’s death marks the bookend to a long political career. U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts was one of the first of Nebraska’s congressional delegation to honor the late politician, saying “Vice President Cheney represented his state and country with commitment and courage.”

U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith remembered Cheney as a “patriot who dedicated his life to service” and who “left an indelible mark on history, overseeing consequential action to defend American prerogatives and promote democracy around the globe.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Flood said Cheney "worked to make America and the world a safer, more peaceful place through his decades of public service."