The legacy of Dick Cheney, polarizing US VP dead at 84

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00:00With us Dick Cheney, the hardlining conservative who became one of the most powerful and polarizing

00:04vice presidents in U.S. history and the leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq has died.

00:10He was 84. Cheney served both presidents, Bush Senior, Bush Junior. He was a key voice that

00:17took the U.S. into the second Gulf War on intelligence, on weapons of mass destruction

00:21that turned out to be false. In later life he took a stand against the change in the Republican

00:26Party and the advent of Donald Trump, describing Trump as the biggest threat to the U.S. Republic

00:31in its over 240-year history. Cheney passed away on Monday due to complications of pneumonia

00:37and cardiac and vascular disease. His family confirming this in a statement this Tuesday.

00:43Here at France 24, Alitza Gadeva has more on the reaction to Cheney's death.

00:50Polarizing, patriotic and evil. The death of former Vice President Dick Cheney has drawn

00:56mixed reactions from people across the United States.

00:59I think he was a patriot. I think he loved this country. I think he was a stalwart Republican

01:10and he'll be missed.

01:11Serving under former U.S. President George Bush, Cheney will be remembered as well as criticized for

01:17his post-9-11 war terror and the U.S.'s second invasion of Iraq.

01:22I'm a veteran so he was involved in a lot of the decision-making and going into Iraq and how he

01:31executed that fight. I think as far as the society, there'll probably be mixed reviews on him.

01:38I was in the military when Cheney was Vice President and I certainly found myself on the

01:45opposite side of a lot of decisions he made at that time.

01:50For many here in Baghdad, Cheney's policies have left a bitter taste.

01:54Dick Cheney had a major role in the occupation and destruction of Iraq under the pretext of nuclear

02:01weapons, which never existed. They destroyed us and Dick Cheney specifically destroyed us.

02:07In a statement, George Bush called his passing a loss to the nation.

02:12History will remember him among the finest public servants of his generation. A patriot who brought

02:18integrity, high intelligence and seriousness of purpose to every position he held. He held on to

02:24his convictions and prioritized the freedom and security of the American people.

02:29Many criticized the late politician, calling him a war criminal and the butcher of Iraq.

02:35For them, Cheney died without having to face the consequences of his controversial military actions.

02:41A mixed legacy, you can say. Let's bring in Ian Reifovitz for more on this distinguished professor

02:48of history at Sunni Empire State University, joining us from New York.

02:53Ian, as always a pleasure to have you with us.

02:55Cheney's legacy, it's fair to say it will be mixed.

03:00Absolutely. And it's great to be with you again, Mark. I mean, this is a person who took the United

03:05States in directions that it had not gone in. Certainly in the post-Vietnam period,

03:11he was pushing the United States hard to not only respond in Afghanistan after 9-11, but in Iraq.

03:21Certainly the evidence for Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction was cited by the

03:28Bush-Cheney administration. And it's pretty clear in hindsight that a good bit of that evidence was

03:34less, less than solid. And they were also, you can argue, strategic errors made pulling the inspectors

03:42or pulling the inspectors out or forcing the UN to pull the inspectors out was, you know,

03:50made no sense really at the time. I think you can make the argument. So I think Cheney has to answer

03:54for those actions in his legacy. Certainly, you heard positive words on his behalf from his former

04:01boss. But I think, you know, we've heard some comments in the prior report from people around

04:06the world who have a less than positive take on his legacy.

04:10He was someone who, until that point, is it fair to say, was regarded very much as one of the

04:16grandees of the Republican Party, someone of great influence, someone of great import.

04:21Well, he has had an incredibly long career. He absolutely was one of the grandees of the

04:29Republican Party. He was also, at one point, an up and coming young conservative, coming up at a

04:37time when the Republican Party, at least in terms of domestic policy and that less so foreign policy,

04:41was much more moderate. And he pushed it in a different direction and changed the Republican

04:47Party, to some degree at least, to bend more to his liking. Obviously, Ronald Reagan had a bigger

04:52impact than Cheney, but he was there as well, certainly in the mid-70s. And I think what we've

04:57seen in the last eight years or ten years is that the Republican Party has changed again and moved away

05:03from Cheney with Trump, certainly who Cheney had been one of the loudest establishment voices

05:11to stand up to Trump. You brought us onto that issue of Donald Trump, of course. Cheney, in the

05:17last presidential election, decided to not actually support the candidate of his Republican Party,

05:23which was, of course, Donald Trump, and to vote for the Democrat Kamala Harris. Clearly, Cheney's

05:29legacy, Cheney's belief in what the Republican Party is about has really nothing to do with the

05:35Republican Party today, of MAGA, of Trump. That's right. He was left behind. He is

05:44the only ex-vice president or president to endorse publicly the presidential candidate of a rival

05:51major party. That's never happened before. It's truly unprecedented if you think about it.

05:56How could it be that a Republican vice president could endorse the Democrats? But he did. I think

06:03certainly because of his own beliefs. He talked about Trump being extremely dangerous. His

06:09daughter, Liz Cheney, was a powerful anti-Trump voice in terms of talking about him as a threat

06:16to democracy. I mean, think about how amazing it is, unprecedented, for a former vice president to

06:22make this statement, as Cheney did in 2022. There has never been an individual who was a greater threat

06:27to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep

06:31himself in power after the voters rejected him. He is a coward. Now, that's the leader of Cheney's

06:36party. It tells you a lot about where the country and especially the Republican Party has moved since

06:41Cheney left office. You make a really interesting series of points here because we can see how the

06:47legacy of Cheney will be regarded as very mixed because of this aspect of his personal integrity,

06:53which clearly is there and clearly he believes politically in certain things and is willing to

06:56stick with that. But then when you balance that against what happened with Iraq, it's

07:01overwhelming that that's how we'll be remembered, isn't it, because of what went wrong there,

07:06because of the fact that that was such an error, I suppose.

07:11I think you're right. I mean, I think you can

07:14certainly make a strong argument that invading Iraq was the single worst foreign policy decision in

07:19the history of the United States for the United States and certainly for the people who were hurt

07:24by it. Having stood up against Trump and shown great personal courage was really important and what

07:32Cheney did in 2022 and 2024. But ultimately, he failed in that Trump won reelection. Cheney's success in

07:40terms of being able to achieve his goal was the foreign policy decision. And so he had a much greater,

07:47I think, harmful impact than he did in his positive statements, which ultimately proved ineffective.

07:54Ian Raifovitz, distinguished professor of history at Empire State University in New York. As always,

07:59thank you for joining us. Thank you for giving us this insight into the lifetimes

08:03and, of course, legacy of Dick Cheney, who's passed away at the age of 84.

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