Dick Cheney

Richard Bruce Cheney, commonly known as Dick Cheney, is an American businessman and Republican politician who served as the 46th vice president of the United States under President George W. Bush. Before becoming vice president, Cheney held senior positions in Congress and several presidential administrations, most notably serving as secretary of defense under President George H. W. Bush. His eight years as vice president made him one of the most prominent members of the Bush administration.

Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, to Richard Herbert Cheney and Marjorie Lauraine Dickey Cheney. His family moved to Casper, Wyoming, when he was thirteen, where he grew up and attended Natrona County High School. He attended Yale University briefly before transferring to the University of Wyoming, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in political science. He married Lynne Vincent in 1964, and they later had two daughters.

Cheney entered national politics in 1969 through an American Political Science Association fellowship on Capitol Hill. He worked for Representative William Steiger and subsequently joined the Office of Economic Opportunity, where he worked with Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld became an important mentor, and Cheney later served on the White House staff during the Nixon and Ford administrations. In 1975, at age thirty-four, Cheney became President Gerald Ford's White House chief of staff, making him one of the youngest people ever to hold that position.

Cheney entered elected politics in 1978 when he won Wyoming's only seat in the House of Representatives. He was reelected five times and eventually became chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, then Republican conference chairman and minority whip. In 1989 President George H. W. Bush nominated Cheney as secretary of defense. The Senate confirmed him unanimously, and he served throughout Bush's presidency, overseeing the Defense Department during the end of the Cold War and the Persian Gulf War. After leaving government in 1993, Cheney became chairman and chief executive officer of Halliburton before George W. Bush selected him as his running mate in 2000.

Cheney became vice president on January 20, 2001, and was reelected with Bush in 2004. He played a major role in national-security and foreign-policy discussions following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also remained an influential participant in administration policy on intelligence, defense, energy, and executive affairs. After leaving office in January 2009, Cheney wrote and spoke about national security, the presidency, and his time in government.

Cheney's legacy is closely associated with the expansion of vice-presidential involvement in national-security policy and with the Bush administration's response to the September 11 attacks, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and debates over executive power. His career also spans several important stages of modern Republican government, from the Ford administration through the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations and into the presidency of George W. Bush.