Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has died at age 84, leaving behind one of the most powerful, controversial, and divisive legacies in modern American politics.
Cheney was a key architect of the Iraq War, a staunch defender of post-9/11 national security policies, and one of the most influential vice presidents in U.S. history. His advocacy for enhanced interrogations, mass surveillance, and a strong executive branch made him admired by allies but vilified by critics.
Even in later years, Cheney remained uncompromising, publicly supporting his daughter Liz Cheney against Donald Trump and the events of January 6, 2021.
Watch as analysts break down why Dick Cheney’s legacy will remain controversial for generations.
00:00Dick Cheney's legacy is fundamentally complicated, fundamentally polarizing, and in many respects
00:26divisive. He was a champion on the right when he was in office, and he had a long career dating back
00:34to the late 60s up to the late 2000s. He was very obviously played a lot of prominent role across
00:40multiple administrations. He embodied a certain form of a Reagan approach with a hawkish line on
00:48national security, an advocate for conservative judges, and for sort of limiting taxes.
00:56The enemy has shown a capacity to inflict great damage on the United States.
01:26And we have to assume there will be more attacks. That is the only safe way to proceed.
01:35On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al-Qaeda terrorist training camps
01:46and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
01:50Because he was very much a proponent of some of the more controversial policies of, you know,
01:57the George W. Bush administration, whether you're thinking about sort of enhanced interrogations or
02:02torture, essentially. If you're thinking about sort of surveillance, the Patriot Act,
02:09or surveillance also, domestic spying on Americans, and of course, his most hawkish line on the war in Iraq
02:16and being largely unapologetic about it. I think many of those issues, I think, played into that perception
02:22of Dick Cheney not being the most sympathetic character to his opponents.
02:27What evidence can you lay before the world that Saddam Hussein...
02:36We have to be concerned about the potential marriage, if you will, between a terrorist organization like al-Qaeda
02:44and those who hold or are proliferating knowledge about weapons of mass destruction.
02:50So the concern is very real, it's very great, and we need to find ways as we go forward to make certain that
02:58the terrorist never acquires that capability, and that it can never be used against the United States
03:04or the United Kingdom or our allies.
03:06And then I think in terms of the way in which the war on terror was prosecuted, I think that was not necessarily specifically to Europe,
03:25but I think the damage that the scandal around enhanced interrogation over Abu Ghraib and other forms of a very militarized response to the war on terror
03:41were also issues where, at least at the time, I think really put Dick Cheney at odds with the European public.
03:48You could argue that over the years, there's been some convergence in the way that counterterrorism has operated.
03:55But if we're thinking back to that specific time, I think there was quite a big gap between the European response to the war on terror
04:02and the line that was advocated by Dick Cheney.
04:14In downtown Baghdad this morning, we're seeing evidence of the collapse of any central regime authority.
04:21The streets are full of people celebrating.
04:24While pockets of regime security forces may remain, they appear to be far less effective at putting up any resistance.
04:32The people can't do it.
04:33You're going to show you under people's devices.
04:44They are the old tanks on the vehicle from the old-
04:47So, these are some of the advisers that work with them.
04:51The Lieutenant Colonel Turner from Virginia.
04:55what we did in iraq was exactly the right thing to do if i had it to recommend all over again i
05:04would recommend exactly the right same course of action the world's far safer today because saddam
05:09hussein is in jail his government's no longer in power and we did exactly the right thing
05:15there are a lot of interesting stories about the degree to which
05:19dick cheney really you know went after harang and put pressure on members of the intelligence
05:27community uh analysts to basically get raw data and you know the accusation for critics is
05:35essentially that they politicized the intelligence that they basically forced implicitly or explicitly
05:43analysts to find these connections and so i think the fact that it turned out to be stupendously
05:49wrong i think has really created deep skepticism towards the ability of the intelligence community
05:58as well as the risk of the political officials you know basically manipulating or instrumentalizing
06:06intelligence for their own benefits and i would say that both inside the united states but of course
06:11is externally um i mean we we saw we've seen the same uh sort of um references or invocations of
06:20can we trust the u.s intelligence because of what happened 20 years ago
06:26thank you very much wyoming the chinese are diehard globalists and warmongers who have been
06:38plunging us into new conflicts for decades spilling american blood and spending american treasure all
06:46over the world i think january 6th is a fundamental fork in the road i think for dick cheney i think
06:54there's still a general reverence for the peaceful transition of power and for the constitution at times
07:01he may himself as sort of have sort of been on treaded on delicate grounds but i think that was for
07:07dick cheney a clear sort of you know red line what he viewed donald trump as being responsible for in
07:15january 6th was just unforgivable the fact that then his own daughter uh you know liz cheney was so
07:22prominent in basically being part of the committee and then becoming very much persona non grata in
07:28the mega world i think obviously contributed in our nation's 246 year history there has never been
07:34an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than donald trump he tried to steal the last
07:40election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him
07:58and he was a bit more than that machine with the remainder of the in-person of the world i think he
08:03had a best not done in this country around the world i think this is the right one of the
08:07other most people are aço of the national authorities not to be in a 1996 but i think that
08:09that's so important because you know it really has to be much even influenced by the
08:10people who experienced these issues and they do love you to even understand the possibilities of
08:11the wave of the world i think there's a huge point that i think when you know that i feel the
08:13kind of relationship and you know that i think there's a lot of people who was going to go back and
08:17and i want to affect all of the things that i think there's been very much is i think pe� astray for that i think is going to be the
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