Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney[1] (born January 30, 1941) served as the 46th Vice President of the United States (2001–2009), under George W. Bush. Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, but was primarily raised in Sumner, Nebraska and Casper, Wyoming.[2] He began his political career as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger, eventually working his way into the White House during the Nixon and Ford administrations, where he served the latter as White House Chief of Staff. In 1978, Cheney was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Wyoming; he was reelected five times, eventually becoming House Minority Whip. Cheney was selected to be the Secretary of Defense during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, holding the position for the majority of Bush's term. During this time, Cheney oversaw the 1991 Operation Desert Storm, among other actions. Out of office during the Clinton presidency, Cheney was chairman and CEO of Halliburton ! Company from 1995 to 2000 . Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Early White House appointments 3 U.S. House of Representatives 3.1 Elections 3.2 Tenure 3.3 Committee assignments 4 Secretary of Defense 4.1 Early tenure 4.2 Budgetary practices 4.3 Political climate and agenda 4.4 International situations 4.4.1 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait 4.4.1.1 US and world reaction 4.4.1.2 Military action 4.4.1.3 Aftermath 5 Private sector career 6 2000 presidential election 7 Vice Presidency 7.1 First term 7.1.1 Iraq War 7.2 Second term 7.2.1 Disclosure of documents 7.2.2 CIA leak scandal 7.2.3 Assassination attempt 7.2.4 Policy formulation 8 Post Vice-Presidency 8.1 Political activity 8.2 Criticism of President Obama 8.3 Memoir 9 Public perception 10 Personal life 10.1 Health problems 10.2 Hunting incident 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links Early life and education Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of Marjorie Lorraine (née Dickey) and Richard Herbe! rt Cheney. He is of predominantly English, as well as Welsh an! d Irish, ancestry; Cheney's 8th great-grandfather, William Cheney, immigrated from England to Massachusetts in the 17th century.[3][4][5] Although not a direct descendant, he is collaterally related to Benjamin Pierce Cheney (1815–1895), the early American expressman. Cheney is a distant cousin of both Harry S. Truman and Barack Obama; the three share a common ancestor in Mareen Duvall, a Huguenot who fled from France to England in the 17th century and later settled in Maryland.[6] His father was a soil conservation agent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and his mother was a softball star in the 1930s;[7] Cheney was one of three children. He attended Calvert Elementary School[8][9] before his family moved to Casper, Wyoming,[10] where he attended Natrona County High School. He attended Yale University, but by his own account had problems adjusting to the college, and flunked out twice.[11] Among the influential teachers from his days in New Haven was Professor H. Br! adford Westerfield, whom Cheney repeatedly credited with having helped to shape his approach to foreign policy.[12] He later attended the University of Wyoming, where he earned both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in political science. He subsequently started, but did not finish, doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[13] In November 1962, at the age of 21, Cheney was convicted of driving while intoxicated (DWI). He was arrested for DWI again the following year.[14] Cheney said that the arrests made him "think about where I was and where I was headed. I was headed down a bad road if I continued on that course."[15] In 1964, he married Lynne Vincent, his high school sweetheart, whom he had met at age 14. When Cheney became eligible for the draft, during the Vietnam War, he applied for and received five draft deferments.[16][17] In 1989, The Washington Post writer George C. Wilson interviewed Cheney as the next Secretary of Defense; when asked abou! t his deferments, Cheney reportedly said, "I had other priorities in th! e '60s than military service."[18] Cheney testified during his confirmation hearings in 1989 that he received deferments to finish a college career that lasted six years rather than four, owing to sub par academic performance and the need to work to pay for his education. Initially, he was not called up because the Selective Service System was only taking older men. When he became eligible for the draft, he applied for four deferments in sequence. He applied for his fifth exemption on January 19, 1966, when his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant. He was granted 3-A status, the "hardship" exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. In January 1967, Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft.[19] Early White House appointments White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld (left) and his assistant Cheney (right) meet with President Gerald Ford at the White House, April 1975 Cheney's political career began in 1969, as an intern for Congressman Wi! lliam A. Steiger during the Richard Nixon Administration. He then joined the staff of Donald Rumsfeld, who was then Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from 1969–70.[14] He held several positions in the years that followed: White House Staff Assistant in 1971, Assistant Director of the Cost of Living Council from 1971–73, and Deputy Assistant to the president from 1974–1975. As deputy assistant, Cheney suggested several options in a memo to Rumsfeld, including use of the US Justice Department, that the Ford administration could use to limit damage from an article, published by The New York Times, in which investigative reporter Seymour Hersh reported that Navy submarines had tapped into Soviet undersea communications as part of a highly classified program.[20][21] Cheney was Assistant to the President under Gerald Ford. When Rumsfeld was named Secretary of Defense, Cheney became White House Chief of Staff, succeeding Rumsfeld.[14] He later was campaign mana! ger for Ford's 1976 presidential campaign.[22] U.S. House of Representa! tives Elections In 1978, Cheney was elected to represent Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives and succeed retiring Congressman Teno Roncalio, having defeated his Democratic opponent, Bill Bailey. Cheney was re-elected five times, serving until 1989. Tenure Leadership In 1987, he was elected Chairman of the House Republican Conference. The following year, he was elected House Minority Whip.[23][23] He served for two and a half months before he was appointed Secretary of Defense instead of former U.S. Senator John G. Tower, whose nomination had been rejected by the U.S. Senate in March 1989.[24] Votes Cheney meets with President Ronald Reagan, 1983 He voted against the creation of the U.S. Department of Education, citing his concern over budget deficits and expansion of the federal government, and claiming that the Department was an encroachment on states' rights.[25] He voted against funding Head Start, but reversed his position in 2000.[26] Cheney supported Bob Mich! el's (R-IL) bid to become Republican Minority Leader.[27] In April 1980, Cheney endorsed Governor Ronald Reagan for President, becoming one of Reagan's earliest supporters.[28] In 1986, after President Ronald Reagan vetoed a bill to impose economic sanctions on South Africa for its policy of apartheid, Cheney was one of 83 Representatives to vote against overriding Reagan's veto.[29] In later years, he articulated his opposition to unilateral sanctions against many different countries, stating "they almost never work"[30] and that in that case they might have ended up hurting the people instead.[31] In 1986, Cheney, along with 145 Republicans and 31 Democrats, voted against a non-binding Congressional resolution calling on the South African government to release Nelson Mandela from prison, after the Democrats defeated proposed amendments that would have required Mandela to renounce violence sponsored by the African National Congress (ANC) and requiring it to oust the comm! unist faction from its leadership; the resolution was defeated. Appeari! ng on CNN, Cheney addressed criticism for this, saying he opposed the resolution because the ANC "at the time was viewed as a terrorist organization and had a number of interests that were fundamentally inimical to the United States."[32] The federal building in Casper, a regional center of the fossil fuel industry, is named the Dick Cheney Federal Building.[33] Committee assignments Originally declining, U.S. Congressman Barber Conable persuaded Cheney to join the moderate Republican Wednesday Group in order to move up the leadership ranks. He was elected Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981 to 1987. Cheney was the Ranking Member of the Select Committee to investigate the Iran-Contra Affair.[14][34][35] He promoted Wyoming's petroleum and coal businesses as well,[36] Secretary of Defense Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney Secretary Cheney with President Bush, 1991 Secretary of Defense Cheney delivering a speech before the launch of destroyer USS Arleigh Burk! e President George H. W. Bush nominated Cheney for the office of Secretary of Defense immediately after the U.S. Senate failed to confirm John Tower for that position.[37] The senate confirmed Cheney by a vote of 92 to 0[37] and he served in that office from March 1989 to January 1993. He directed the United States invasion of Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East. In 1991 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bush.[23] Early tenure Cheney worked closely with Pete Williams, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, and Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, from the beginning of his tenure. He focused primarily on external matters, and left most internal Pentagon management to Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald J. Atwood, Jr.[24] Budge
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Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (born January 30, 1941) served as the 46th Vice President of the United States (2001–2009), under George W. Bush. Cheney was born in Read the rest