Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney (born 30 January 1941) was Vice President of the United States from 20 January 2001 to 20 January 2009, succeeding Al Gore and preceding Joe Biden. A Republican, he formerly served as White House Chief of Staff from 21 November 1975 to 20 January 1977 (succeeding Donald Rumsfeld and preceding Hamilton Jordan), a member of the US House of Representatives (R-WY) from 3 January 1979 to 20 March 1989 (succeeding Teno Roncalio and preceding Craig L. Thomas), and Secretary of Defense from 21 March 1989 to 20 January 1993 (succeeding Frank Carlucci and preceding Les Aspin).
Biography[]
Richard Bruce Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1941, and he grew up in Casper, Wyoming. He received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War due to his college attendance and his marriage, and he became an intern for Republican congressman William A. Steiger in 1969. He then continued to work for the White House, serving as its Chief of Staff from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and also managing Ford's 1976 presidential campaign. In 1978, he was elected to the US House of Representatives, and he served from 1979 to 1989, and then as George H.W. Bush's Secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993. He downsized the military in the aftermath of the Cold War, but his budgets showed negative real growth, despite pressures to acquire weapons systems advocated by the US Congress; however, he oversaw the US military victory in the Gulf War. From 1995 to 2000, he served as CEO of the Halliburton Company, a powerful player in the oil industry. In 2000, he was chosen as George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidate, and they won in that year and again in 2004. Cheney played a leading behind-the-scenes role in the Bush administration's response to the 9/11 attacks and the coordination of the War on Terror, and he was an early proponent of the Iraq War and a defender of the administration's anti-terrorism record. He was criticized for his handling of the campaign against terrorism, wiretapping by the NSA, and the torture of suspected terrorists, and Cheney would himself criticize Bush for his stance against same-sex marriage. He left office in 2009, and his daughter Liz Cheney would become a congresswoman.