Those unable to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And those to whom it is likely to be unkind often hastily write their own unique and revised version(s) of it. That, along with the eagerness of its author to turn a profit, explains the recent release of “In My Time,” the reminiscences of former vice president and Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney.

To be fair, the architect and chief advocate of America’s hyper-aggressive, expensive and disastrously ineffective foreign policy from 2001-07 isn’t the first high-profile narcissist whose published memoir casts its author in a consistently favorable light. Who in his or her right mind (aside from O.J. Simpson) would consider taking money to create a self-portrayal characterizing its subject as an arrogant, bullying sociopath? In reality, the term “self-serving autobiography” is a redundant one.

Few accounts of past events come without the chronicler’s unique spin, but when it comes to self-aggrandizing rationalization the man who in 2002 famously declared “deficits don’t matter” may be without peer. By his account, he’s never been wrong about anything, and his critics ”“ who most recently include former allies George Will and Colin Powell, among others ”“ have never been right.

Like most books consisting of strident and subjective opinions and observations, “In my Time” has elicited strong reactions, both from its author’s few remaining defenders and from his legion of detractors on the left, in the center, and on what remains of the rational right.

As a young man, Cheney’s apparent aversion to military service led him to defer induction five times during the Vietnam era; ultimately he never did serve his country in the armed forces. But subsequent philosophical adjustments made him an ardent unilateralist who unhesitatingly advocated putting America’s soldiers, sailors and marines into harm’s way in numerous overseas conflicts. Admirers see that metamorphosis as proof of his continuing personal evolution, but critics view his ever-increasing enthusiasm for helping to arrange wars others had to fight that resulted in financial windfalls for he and his corporate friends as evidence of craven hypocrisy.

Perhaps it was sheer happenstance that Cheney became extremely wealthy as chairman and CEO of the Halliburton Corporation, the world’s second-largest oilfield services provider, and that his company’s profits skyrocketed with increased United States military involvement around the world. And maybe it was similarly coincidental that most of the increasingly hawkish decisions, which led to involving America’s armed forces in so many expensive overseas forays occurred when Cheney was a top policymaker, first as defense secretary under President George H. W. Bush, then as vice president under Bush the younger.

Or maybe not.

Like Pablo Escobar, the notorious Colombian drug lord who made billions of dollars during his murderous career as a cocaine trafficker but used much of his haul to build hospitals, schools and churches in his native country, Dick Cheney cannot simply be labeled a great patriot who’d do anything to defend his country, nor dismissed as the personification of pure evil. 

George Washington owned slaves; Benito Mussolini made the trains run on time. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t always faithful to his wife; Joseph Stalin helped bring down Nazi Germany. Mother Teresa maintained AIDS was deserved retribution for improper sexual conduct; Saddam Hussein revitalized Iraq’s infrastructure and economy.

No human being is all good or all bad, and the author of “In my Time” is no exception. While many of his apparent shortcomings (two arrests for drunk driving, shooting a friend on a hunting trip and then failing to immediately report it, and zealous advocacy of armed combat for those other than himself, to name three) have been well documented, even his harshest critics should acknowledge the good he’s done.

Cheney was one of the few high-profile members of his political party who didn’t openly or covertly gay-bash during the period when demonizing same-sex marriage was the right-wing’s divisive scare tactic of choice. He also brought out some belated character in his nominal boss George W. Bush, who steadfastly refused his domineering subordinate’s demands to pardon Scooter Libby after Cheney’s right-hand man was convicted of a felony in connection with leaking the identity of a CIA operative whose husband had questioned the veracity of “evidence” the administration used to justify starting the Iraq war. Bush also began turning the warmongering Cheney out during their last two years in office, arguably keeping the United States military out of even more bloody and costly military entanglements in the Middle East and elsewhere around the globe.

Evaluating Dick Cheney’s legacy is a matter of perspective. Oil company executives and other high-ranking military-industrial complex members lionize his uncompromising allegiance to his (and their) beliefs, while disparagers see him as a Lord Voldemort/Darth Vader hybrid, minus the charm. His life and “Time” have undeniably been impactful, but ultimately how he’ll be judged will depend entirely upon who’s doing the appraising.

 — Andy Young teaches in Kennebunk and lives in Cumberland.