Outside the Bush Presidential Library on the campus of SMU, flags are lowered in honor of Vice President Dick Cheney.
The 46th vice president under George W. Bush died from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease Monday night, his family said.
President Bush released a statement that read, in part, “Laura and I will remember Dick Cheney for the decent, honorable man that he was. History will remember him as among the finest public servants of his generation…”
A staunch conservative, Cheney served three administrations and decades in Congress representing Wyoming, but he also had deep ties to Texas.
“He loved the place and while he was a man of Wyoming, he was a Texan as well,” said SMU Political Science Professor Cal Jillson.
Cheney served as CEO of Dallas-based Halliburton before then-Governor George W. Bush asked him to lead the search party for his running mate in 2000 and he ended up with the job.
Their partnership was sometimes referred to as a co-presidency, although Jillson disagrees.
“George W. Bush always had the final word, but Dick Cheney was the last guy in the room making arguments about the course that should be taken,” Jillson said.
Cheney deeply shaped American foreign policy after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. He fiercely defended the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in the country.
“Over the eight years they served together in the White House, George W. Bush became increasingly the dominant force in that partnership, but they were partners,” said Jillson.
Jillson said he believes Americans will ultimately remember Cheney’s half-century of service to the country.
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