Despite his hardline conservatism, Cheney became isolated from Republican leadership over his condemnation of President Donald Trump, whom he labeled the republic's greatest threat. His career concluded when he supported Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024, demonstrating how the Republican Party's populist shift had rejected his traditional conservatism. Heart disease affected Cheney throughout his adult life, yet he survived multiple cardiac episodes and lived years after his 2012 heart transplant, which he called "the gift of life itself," CNN reported.

On September 11, 2001, Cheney occupied the White House while Bush traveled. Witnessing the second aircraft strike New York's World Trade Center transformed him into someone committed to avenging al-Qaida's assault and imposing American authority across the Middle East. "At that moment, you knew this was a deliberate act. This was a terrorist act," he told CNN's John King in 2002. Operating from a fortified shelter beneath the White House, Cheney managed the traumatized nation's response, issuing the directive authorizing military forces to destroy additional hijacked jets approaching the White House or Capitol. The September 11 attacks triggered American intervention in Afghanistan to remove the Taliban, though al-Qaida commander Osama bin Laden escaped. Cheney then advocated expanding military action to Iraq and dictator Saddam Hussein, whose forces he had helped expel from Kuwait during the first Gulf conflict as President George H.W. Bush's defense chief.

The vice president's aggressive declarations regarding Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction, supposed al-Qaida connections, and intention to arm terrorists significantly established justification for the 2003 invasion. Post-conflict investigations demonstrated Cheney and fellow officials overstated or mischaracterized defective intelligence concerning capabilities Iraq ultimately lacked. Among his most discredited assertions, that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta encountered Iraqi intelligence in Prague, never received confirmation. Yet Cheney maintained in 2005 that officials operated on "the best available intelligence," and argued any claim the data was "distorted, hyped, or fabricated" remained "utterly false."

The conflicts additionally guided America down troubling avenues including "enhanced interrogations" of terrorism suspects that opponents condemned as torture, though Cheney maintained methods such as waterboarding remained appropriate. He championed detaining suspects without trials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a measure critics characterized as offending fundamental American principles, according to CNN.

Cheney departed office despised by Democrats with a 31% approval rating, as measured by the Pew Research Center. Throughout his remaining years, he voiced no remorse, convinced he had performed necessary actions responding to an assault that claimed nearly 2,800 lives and initiated almost 20 years of overseas conflicts. "I would do it again in a minute," Cheney stated when confronted by a 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee investigation that determined enhanced interrogation techniques as savage and ineffectual. Regarding Iraq, he informed said in 2015: "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now," according to CNN.

During his final years, Cheney surfaced as an intense Trump opponent, despite backing him in 2016. Trump's refusal to acknowledge his 2020 electoral loss and the January 6 uprising prompted Cheney to protest publicly. His daughter, then-Representative Liz Cheney, sacrificed her Republican career to challenge Trump following his effort to reverse the election outcome. During a 2022 video for his daughter's unsuccessful primary fight, Dick Cheney stared into the camera beneath a cowboy hat and stated: "In our nation's 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump," adding "He is a coward. A real man wouldn't lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big. I know it. He knows it, and deep down, I think most Republicans know." Richard Bruce Cheney was born January 30, 1941, in Lincoln, Nebraska, and met his future wife Lynne Vincent in Casper, Wyoming. After struggling at Yale and receiving two drunk driving arrests, he received an ultimatum from Lynne, who had "made it clear she wasn't interested in marrying a lineman for the county," he told The New Yorker. "I buckled down and applied myself. Decided it was time to make something of myself," according to CNN.

Cheney commenced his Washington career as a Nixon aide, then became Donald Rumsfeld's deputy White House chief of staff under President Gerald Ford before succeeding him in 1975. He won Wyoming's House seat in 1978, serving six terms and advancing to minority whip with an extremely conservative record. President George H. W. Bush selected him as defense secretary in 1989, calling him a "trusted friend, advisor," and he managed the 1989 Panama invasion and 1991 Operation Desert Storm. During Bill Clinton's presidency, Cheney joined Halliburton as CEO. When the younger Bush sought office, Cheney led the running mate search and ultimately joined the ticket himself. "During the process, I came to the conclusion that the selector was the best person to be selected," Bush stated in the 2020 CNN documentary "President in Waiting."

Cheney's health issues began with a 1978 heart attack at 37, followed by three more in 1984, 1988, and November 2000. He stated he'd be the "the first to step down" if unable to fulfill his duties. After a fifth heart attack in 2010, he obtained a heart pump before his 2012 transplant. Following office, Cheney wrote two memoirs and became a vocal Obama critic. Years later, he condemned his own party's reaction to the Capitol assault, returning to the Capitol with Liz Cheney on January 6, 2021's one-year commemoration. "I am deeply disappointed at the failure of many members of my party to recognize the grave nature of the January 6 attacks and the ongoing threat to our nation," he stated. Democrats welcomed the former Republican vice president, with Nancy Pelosi embracing him in a scene that illustrated how Trump's transformation of American politics made former adversaries discover shared purpose defending democracy. "It's not leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years," Cheney stated at the Capitol in 2022. He endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024 due to the "duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution," cautioning Trump "can never be trusted with power again," though Trump secured the presidency months later, CNN reported.

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Negotiations over how to end the 18-year war in Afghanistan have been held in Doha since late last year. The ninth round of talks began last week.

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"We hope to have good news soon for our Muslim, independence-seeking nation," said Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Doha.

US officials engaged in talks with the Taliban in Doha were not immediately available for comment.

Two sources with knowledge of the negotiations said that the US special representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been leading the talks, is scheduled to be in Kabul to brief President Ashraf Ghani about the agreement.

A senior security official in Kabul said the Taliban and US officials had agreed on a timeline of about 14 to 24 months for the withdrawal of the US forces.

Details would be shared with the Afghan government before they were made public, the official said.

Ghani, who is seeking a second term in September, has repeatedly offered to hold direct talks with the Taliban, but the group demanded a complete withdrawal of foreign forces as a precondition to start negotiations.

Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for Ghani, said the government did not want US forces to stay in Afghanistan over the long term, but added that their "conditions-based" presence was needed at this stage.

"We want to end the bloodshed. We cannot accept the orders of the Taliban. They must accept our demands and we demand peace," said Sediqqi.

Some 14,000 US troops remain in Afghanistan, training and advising Afghan forces and conducting counter-insurgency operations. NATO also has a mission in the country totaling 17,000 to provide support to the Afghan forces.

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Civilian casualties in Afghanistan have been increasing, despite attempts by the United States and the Taliban to negotiate an agreement to end the 18-year war.

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The government's main security agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), said that the operation in Paktia province had targeted a Taliban hideout and among the 11 dead terrorists were two commanders.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it was gravely concerned about the killings during a search operation and that a human rights team was currently investigating.

"Accountability essential. Harm to civilians must stop," the agency said in a post on Twitter.

A politician in the area said that government forces attacked a student gathering over the Eid al-Adha holiday.

"A university student had invited his classmates for dinner," Allah Mir Khan Bahramzoi, a provincial council member in Paktia, told Reuters.

"Late in the evening, security forces surrounded the house, brought out the victims from the guesthouse and shot them one by one," he said by telephone from the province.

The NDS said weapons and ammunition were seized in the raid.

"This operation was conducted based on operative information on a Taliban hideout and it left no civilian casualties," the agency said in a statement.

The United Nations says nearly 4,000 civilians were killed or wounded in the first half of the year. The toll included a big increase in the number of casualties inflicted by government and US-led foreign forces.

Ground raids and clashes caused the most civilian casualties, followed by bomb attacks and airstrikes, UNAMA said in a report last month.

There has been no let-up in violence, even though the Taliban and the United States have both reported significant progress in talks on a pact for US troops to withdraw in exchange for a Taliban promise that Afghanistan will not be used as a base for future terrorist attacks.

Their latest round of talks ended on Monday without a final agreement. No date has been announced for the next round.

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