The Vulcanians, neoconservatives, hawks in foreign affairs from Russia to Iran, were defined in large part because they believed that leading the planet's great and only superpower should be done logically, coldly, without emotions. They believed that the guard could not be lowered after the fall of the USSR because the world was Hobbesian. They were the ones who transformed the country by shaping the response to 9/11. And at the center, with an aversion to smiling, as intelligent as he was unempathetic, he was undoubtedly at the core.
Cheney was an insider like few in the capital, where he was everything: congressman, White House Chief of Staff, Secretary of Defense, Party advisor, and advisor to presidents. The person to call, the fixer who could fix anything. Someone with a very clear idea of the State, his party, and the society and country he wanted to leave as a legacy. He was always a strategist, a tactician, behind all major decisions but in the shadows. He promulgated the One Percent Doctrine, known as the Cheney Doctrine, which stated that the United States could and should preemptively attack anyone who could pose a threat, sparking an epistemological debate distinguishing between preventive and preemptive, which entertained academics for years.
The role of the Vice President in the US is very peculiar. In the early years of the Republic, the position was held by the loser of the presidential elections or a direct rival of the winner. In the 20th century, it became a secondary figure, making sense during the campaign and little else. It helped win by providing the vote of his state, region, or certain demographic groups, but then was left in a corner, with little or no power, tasks more than just protocol, and no real access to the Oval Office. Waiting four or eight years with the hope of replacing the leader of the free world by leveraging his fame and contacts. Jimmy Carter was the first to turn the figure around, truly relying on Walter Mondale. And Bush Jr., inexperienced, advised by his father, delegated like no one else to Cheney.
For a decade, the Vice President embodied both raw and unvarnished power and the figure of the deep state. Many believe that without Cheney on the team, the Republicans would not have known how to pressure the Supreme Court and win the elections in that historic and controversial vote recount in Florida. "There he had his own empire and went at his own pace," George H. W. Bush told historian Jon Meacham about Cheney's vice presidency, whom he said he "did not recognize" and accused of having too much thirst for power.
For millions of people around the world, he was the one responsible, the architect, of the War on Terror and the invasion of Iraq. Of the separation and almost rupture with Europe alongside his old friend and collaborator Rumsfeld, appointed Secretary of Defense. For Democrats and the progressive movement, he was, like Karl Rove (President Bush's Chief of Staff), the 'Machiavellian' embodiment of evil, the ideal type, as Max Weber would say, of the Republican paid by big corporations, oil companies, who only wanted power and money. The one responsible for the Patriot Act, the expansion of surveillance, the curtailment of civil rights, the legitimization of torture as an interrogation method in the fight against terrorism.
The ultimate villain who, far from getting angry, proudly embraced the label of Darth Vader. Until Donald Trump arrived. In his final years, Cheney and his daughter, for decades representatives of rural conservatism par excellence, were among the few who openly and frontally opposed the billionaire, saying he was a danger to his party, the country, and democracy. They even went as far as voting for Kamala Harris to try to prevent his return. In vain.
Born in Nebraska in 1941, Cheney was admitted to Yale but ended up graduating from universities in Wyoming and Wisconsin. He soon began working in the Nixon Administration and rose through the ranks at a dizzying speed, becoming responsible for the transition after Nixon's fall and Chief of Staff to his successor, Gerald Ford. The key position in the government, the one who knows everyone, who answers the phone when the president calls and decides who has access or not.
He then returned to Wyoming and won five consecutive elections to Congress, becoming a key figure in the party in the lower house. Until Bush Jr. brought him back to the Executive as the almighty Secretary of Defense, just before the Gulf War or the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the USSR. Cheney came with one world, left with a very different one, with the US as the sole superpower. And with a very clear idea of everything needed to maintain global balance. After Bill Clinton's victory, he moved to the private sector as the president of Halliburton, which led half the planet to see the Iraq War as just a war for oil.
Cheney, discreet, obsessed with secrets, was a conservative all his life, advocating at the same time for a small state, meaning fewer taxes, and a strong military. Cheney played a prominent role in all aspects of the administration, from daily legislation to economic policy, from the composition of the courts to environmental regulations. But his comfort zone, where he felt most at ease, was national security. There he became an icon, an almost mythical figure. Unapologetic, interventionist, aggressive.
Cheney loved power. His ambition was immense but in a completely different way from his predecessors and successors. He never aspired to the presidency because he was always more comfortable away from the cameras. Making decisions, pulling the strings, from Congress to the West Wing, from the Pentagon to the halls of NATO. For many, he was the shadow president for eight years, aware at the same time that he did not have the personality, patience, or charisma for such exposed positions. Unlike his boss, he listened, read technical dossiers, liked details, and did his homework.
As Vice President and brain of the White House, he was one of the staunchest advocates of the so-called unitary executive theory, which Trump and his advisors have now taken to the extreme. A vision that claims broad constitutional powers for the president, especially in national security matters. He believed that Congress had taken on too many functions, especially after Watergate, and that the White House, following the founders' design, should have the first and final say on the most sensitive issues, without so many checks and balances hindering it. "I believe in a strong and solid executive authority, and I think the world we live in demands it. I firmly believe that, especially in the current era and given the nature of the threats we face, the President of the United States needs to have his constitutional powers intact, so to speak, regarding national security."
In his final days in the White House, when his historic allies had left and he was the last of the old guard, he lost influence and distanced himself greatly from Bush, leading to a direct clash over the Scooter Libby case, Cheney's Chief of Staff who was sentenced to 30 months in prison and a fine for leaking a spy's identity and obstructing justice. The president commuted the sentence but did not pardon him, something Cheney never forgave.
After that, his role was secondary but insistent. He always defended his legacy, including torture, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and downplayed intelligence errors, especially those related to weapons of mass destruction. He constantly criticized Obama's foreign policy while urging his own party that isolationism was not an option.
In January 2021, he joined the other nine living former Secretaries of Defense (including Rumsfeld, who passed away that same year) to sign an open letter stating that Trump had lost the 2020 presidential elections and that "both he and the current leaders of the Pentagon would be betraying their country if they worked to keep him in office. American elections and the peaceful transitions of power resulting from them are the essence of our democracy," they wrote.
Although he never stepped back and was perceived as a force of nature, his health was always precarious. Afflicted with coronary problems for most of his adult life, he suffered five heart attacks between 1978 and 2010. In 2012, he underwent a heart transplant after having to repair aneurysms in arteries behind both knees and being treated for a blood clot in his left leg after spending 65 hours in nine days traveling by plane.
"His beloved wife Lynne, with whom he shared 61 years of marriage, his daughters Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him in his final moments. The former Vice President passed away due to complications from pneumonia and cardiovascular disease," his family announced in a statement released on Tuesday morning.