Updated: President Obama called former Vice President Dick Cheney at home to wish him a speedy recovery from his latest heart attack, a rare truce in the fiery, arms-length debate the two have been having about national security over the last year.

A White House official said Thursday that the president called Mr. Cheney on Wednesday after the former vice president was released from George Washington University Hospital. Mr. Cheney was treated for what his office called a “mild heart attack,” his fifth over the last three decades.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had previously called his predecessor while Mr. Cheney was still at the hospital. The White House did not announce Mr. Obama’s call on Wednesday but the official confirmed it in response to an inquiry. Mr. Cheney’s spokesman, Peter Long, said the former vice president “thanked him or the call and they enjoyed a pleasant, non-substantive conversation.”



In the year since Mr. Obama assumed the presidency, Mr. Cheney has become his fiercest and highest profile critic, particularly in terms of his handling of terrorism. At one point last year, Mr. Obama and Mr. Cheney gave back-to-back speeches assailing each other’s approach to detaining and interrogating suspected terrorists and just this month, Mr. Cheney appeared opposite Mr. Biden on Sunday talk shows in what amounted to a debate about the Obama presidency.

Mr. Cheney has accused the president of not understanding that the country is at war with terrorists and recently told a conservative political conference that he thought Mr. Obama would be “a one-term president.” The White House has sharply assailed Mr. Cheney’s record and at one point in December accused him of making “untrue” statements.