Washington: Dick Cheney, the hard-charging conservative who became one of the most powerful and polarising vice presidents in US history and a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq, has died at age 84.

Cheney died Monday due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family said Tuesday in a statement.

The quietly forceful 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 Bush’s son George W Bush.

Cheney was, in effect, the chief operating officer of the younger 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 h

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