Which Dick Cheney was celebrated at his National Cathedral memorial?

It's complicated. So was he.

"This was a vice president totally devoted to protecting the United States and its interests," former President George W. Bush said in his affectionate eulogy. He described Cheney as serious, thoughtful, and, in some ways, an unlikely politician. "Sparing and measured in words," he said, "in a profession that attracts talkers."

Richard Bruce Cheney, once one of the most prominent and partisan leaders of the Republican Party, in the end was mourned by as many big-name Democrats as fellow Republicans at the solemn service on Nov. 20.

There was a time when those on both sides of the aisle would have found that astonishing. In a reflection of how thoroughly Donald Trump has remade the nation's politics, a former president was in the pews − that would be Democrat Joe Biden − but not the current Republican one.

He wasn't invited, the White House said, and his name wasn't mentioned from the pulpit during the two-hour funeral.

Bush, who in 2003 had heeded his vice president's confident counsel to invade Iraq, delivered one of the opening eulogies. The war − based on what turned out to be faulty intelligence that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction − would last eight years, erode public support for Bush and tag Cheney among his Democratic opponents as a warmonger.

The final tribute was from Liz Cheney, his daughter and a successor in the Wyoming House seat he had held. She lost her post and her party after helping lead efforts to impeach President Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol in 2021.

Her father joined her in denouncing Trump as a threat to the republic, earning him enmity from fellow Republicans as a turncoat and accolades from even fierce Democrats as democracy's hero.

"Dick Cheney became a Republican, but he knew the bonds of party must always yield to the single bond we share as Americans," she said, a lesson he taught her and his grandchildren. "For him, a choice between of the Constitution and defense of your political party was no choice at all."

The eulogies depicted Dick Cheney as the steadfast one in a world that had changed. The common thread was his determination to defend the nation from threats abroad and those close to home.

A Westerner's aversion to chatter and soft soap

Not that Dick Cheney, who died Nov. 3 at age 84, ever seemed to care much about either praise or criticism.

He had a Westerner's aversion to chatter and soft soap. A one-time college dropout who found his calling in Washington's corridors of power, Cheney's low-key manner sometimes masked the conservative ideology he pursued during the time he was a White House chief of staff for President Gerald Ford, a member of the GOP leadership in Congress, the Defense secretary for the elder president Bush and vice president for the younger Bush.

Cheney never stopped defending the Iraq War and the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists, even after many called those tactics torture and accused their advocates of war crimes. He argued that those techniques had kept the nation safe after 9/11.

In retirement, he brought that same stubborn certainty to his assessment of Trump.

It prompted him to announce he was voting for Democrat Kamala Harris for president last year − a head-spinning turn for a leading figure in the GOP establishment for decades. He called Trump a coward and a danger. "He can never be trusted with power again," he said.

Trump made no public comment about Cheney after his death, though he had already made his view of the former vice president clear. In a post on X after Cheney endorsed Harris, he labelled him "the King of Endless, Nonsensical Wars, wasting Lives and Trillions of Dollars, just like Comrade Kamala Harris."

When Cheney died, the White House ordered U.S. flags lowered in tribute, but perhaps only because it didn't have a choice. "I know the president is aware of the former vice president's passing," Leavitt told reporters. "And as you saw, flags have been lowered to half-staff in accordance with statutory law."

That was all.

In the pews, Supreme Court justices and opponents-turned-allies

Sitting in the pews were former vice presidents from both parties: Democrats Harris and Al Gore and Republicans Mike Pence and Dan Quayle. Trump's current vice president, JD Vance, wasn't invited.

For some of the mourners, their presence marked a sharp turn in views of Cheney. Biden had once described him as "probably the most dangerous vice president we've had in American history." Gore and Cheney exchanged sharp jabs when they were running on opposing tickets in the 2000 presidential campaign.

There were some odd couples caught on camera as those in the cathedral waited for the service to begin. Bush turning around in his pew for a smiling conversation with Gore. Harris and former first lady Jill Biden, who have faced some strains, sitting next to each other, chatting. Former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci next to cable news anchor Rachel Maddow of MSNOW.

Some senior Republican senators were among the 1,000 mourners in the cathedral, including Majority Leader John Thune and former leader Mitch McConnell. Retired House Speaker John Boehner was there.

Among House members, though, the Republicans may well have been outnumbered by the Democrats, including those who played key roles in Trump's two impeachments. They included former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had been the highest-ranking Democrat to oppose the Iraq War from the start and a thorn in the Bush administration's side.

But the current House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, didn't attend.

And officials from the current Trump administration were hard to spot.

Messages in the music, including a defiant battle hymn

Even the hymns, patriotic and defiant, seemed to carry a message.

The Cheney family − including widow Lynne Cheney, daughters Mary and Liz, and seven grandchildren − were seated in the cathedral as the U.S. Marine Chamber Orchestra played "With Malice Toward None," from a score written by American composer John Williams for the biographical drama "Lincoln." At the service's midpoint, the congregation sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee."

At the end, they joined in singing the final refrain − "His truth is marching on" − of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Warmonger or democracy's hero? Dick Cheney's complicated legacy

Reporting by Susan Page, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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