Who was Dick Cheney and what did he do in the Gulf war?

Dick Cheney, who served as Vice President of the United States under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, passed away Monday night at the age of 84 due to complications from pneumonia and cardiovascular disease.

Cheney was widely regarded as one of the most controversial VPs in American political history. He was one of the driving forces in shaping the US response to the September 11 attacks, he was a chief advocate of the so-called “War on Terror” and pushed strong in favor of the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska on January 30, 1941, Cheney’s interest in politics began and developed while studying at Yale University, then the University of Wyoming, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1965 and an MA in the same subject the following year.

Cheney climbs the political ladder

He relocated to Washington as a congressional fellow in 1968 and entered federal service in 1969. Two years later, aged 30, he became a White House staff assistant, working in the Cost of Living Council. Cheney served under President Gerald Ford (1974–75) and was promoted to White House chief of staff in 1975.

A Republican, Cheney was elected as Wyoming’s representative in the House of Representatives in November 1978. He was nominated by George H. W. Bush for the role of secretary of defense and after the Senate’s approval, entered office in March 1989.

But it was during his time serving under Bush Jr. that Cheney became a key player on the global stage.

September 11 2001, the day the world changed

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Cheney became the chief strategist behind the US’ controversial military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Congress voted on October 11 2002 to prevent the Bush administration into hastily launching an unprovoked attack on Iraq, and dethroning Saddam Hussein, who Cheney accused of stockpiling weapons of mass destruction - which “could be deployed within 45 minutes”.

156 members of Congress from 36 states voted against the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives - over 4,100 US soldiers were killed and hundreds of thousands of civilians perished.

No regrets about the invasion of Iraq

No evidence of WMDs were found in Iraq, even after Saddam Hussein was captured and put on trial. But Cheney was unrepentant, adamant that the US had made the correct decision with no regrets and unashamed of the massive casualties the invasion caused on both sides.

He told CNN: “I think the Iraqis will be someone we can work with on a regular basis. That they will have a rudimentary democracy, if you will, and I think it will be a success but we’ll have to see. I don’t think you can make a case that the world today would be a better place if Saddam Hussein were still in power. It’s the Middle East, stuff happens - I think we made exactly the right decisions".

His legacy remains one of the most polarizing in modern political history — some applauded his hardline stance on tightening homeland security, while for others, he was a self-serving, unapologetic warmonger intent on eroding fundamental human rights.

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