Richard “Dick” Cheney

Cheney is known for his military-hawk or “neoconservative” politics, with a long record of militarist foreign policy views and an expansive view of legitimate domestic security powers. He was one of the most influential and controversial vice presidents in American history, and was often accused by critics of operating as a shadow president. ³

Early Life and Education

Dick Cheney was born in 1941 in Lincoln, Nebraska. His father, Richard Cheney, was an employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a Democrat. ^{4 5}

Cheney attended Yale University on a scholarship provided by a local oil man but failed out after his second year. He later returned, and then dropped out again. At Yale, he studied under Professor H. Bradford Westerfeld, a foreign policy scholar who also taught former U.S. Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), and who was highly influential on Cheney’s foreign policy views. Cheney then attended the University of Wyoming where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he earned a master’s degree in political science. ^{4 5 6 7}

Cheney has acknowledged two driving under the influence of alcohol offenses from his 20s. ⁸

Cheney avoided being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War through multiple deferments. He later said he would “have been happy to serve if called.” ⁹

Early Political Career

Before Elected Office

Dick Cheney began his political career working for former Wisconsin Governor Warren Knowles (R-WI) and in the Wyoming state legislature. He then moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked for then-U.S. Rep. William Steiger (R-WI). ^{4 7}

Cheney initially applied to work for then-U.S. Rep. Donald Rumsfeld (R-IL) but was rejected. He later reconnected with Rumsfeld and worked for him as he rose as an official in Republican presidential administrations. Cheney worked closely under Rumsfeld as special assistant and chief of staff in the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity in the Nixon administration and then on the White House staff for the Ford administration. When Rumsfeld transferred from chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford, Cheney took his place in the White House. President Ford would later call Cheney “an excellent chief of staff,” and he gained a reputation for talent in behind-the-scenes deal making. In 1976, Cheney worked as President Ford’s campaign manager in his unsuccessful reelection campaign. ^{1 4 7}

U.S. Congress

In 1978, Cheney was elected U.S. Representative for Wyoming despite having suffered his first heart attack during the campaign. Over the following decade, Cheney served as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, chairman of the House Republican Conference, and House Minority Whip. As a U.S. Representative, Cheney had an extremely conservative voting record, voting against making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday, Head Start, the Clean Water Act, the creation of the U.S. Department of Education, and imposing sanctions on South Africa for apartheid. He also passed a major conservation bill that set aside 880,000 acres of Wyoming as a nature preserve. ^{1 10}

U.S. Department of Defense

In 1989, Cheney left Congress to serve as U.S. Secretary of Defense under President George H.W. Bush. He was President Bush’s second choice after the U.S. Senate rejected the nomination of former U.S. Sen. John Tower (R-TX). Cheney appointed General Colin Powell to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff and oversaw U.S. military efforts during Operation Desert Storm, during which he eventually made the controversial decision to pull troops out of Iraq without deposing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Cheney then presided over a major reduction in U.S. military spending and personnel in response to the demise of the Soviet Union. ¹

Halliburton

In 1992, then-President George H.W. Bush was defeated for re-election by then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton (D). Cheney left the U.S. Department of Defense and considered a presidential run in 1996, but decided against it reportedly due to a dislike of fundraising and health concerns. ¹

From 1995 to 2000, Cheney worked as chief executive officer of energy conglomerate Halliburton after meeting the ex-CEO on a fishing trip. Cheney had previously hired Halliburton to perform a study on military privatization while at the Department of Defense. ¹

Cheney resigned from Halliburton to avoid a conflict of interest when he became vice president. ¹ Regardless, Cheney was accused of improperly supporting Halliburton while serving as vice president. In 2004, then-U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (D-MA) claimed that Halliburton had profited from the U.S. invasion of Iraq by “engaging in massive overcharging” through no-bid contracts, and that Cheney was still profiting from the relationship by receiving $2 million in deferred compensation since 2001. ¹¹

A New York Times investigation found that from 2000 to 2003, Halliburton rose from the 22nd largest military contractor to the 7th, largely due to a $5 billion contract to provide food, housing, fuel, and logistical support to the U.S. military. Pentagon auditors accused Halliburton of overcharging and threatened to withhold reimbursements, but eventually declined to do so. ¹¹

The Government Accountability Office investigated the matter and determined that Halliburton justified its costs by being the only company with the immediately available resources to provide the necessary services. In addition to deferred bonuses and salaries, the Times also found that Cheney continued holding Halliburton stock options, though he promised to donate any after-tax profits to charity. Likewise, his continued salary was paid out as part of an insurance policy that insulated Cheney’s compensation from the company’s stock price. ¹¹

Vice Presidency

Then-Texas Governor George W. Bush (R) approached Cheney to find and vet vice presidential candidates for his 2000 presidential campaign. After rejecting each candidate, Governor Bush asked Cheney to run with him, a choice Bush claimed he had wanted to make from the start. ¹

Cheney is known to be one of the most influential vice presidents in American history. Particularly after the September 11 attacks, Cheney led efforts to enhance national security, implement federal surveillance systems, and pursue a more hawkish foreign policy, including supporting the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, stopping the closure of Guantanamo Bay, and implementing the use of waterboarding. Domestically, Cheney played key roles in negotiating the federal budget, choosing cabinet members and U.S. Supreme Court nominees, and cutting economic regulations. ³

Cheney was often framed as the less charismatic but more detail-oriented companion to President Bush, focused on managing bureaucracy while President Bush made high-level decisions. Cheney’s influence supposedly declined during President Bush’s second term as the president became weary of his influence. In 2007, Cheney’s aide, Scooter Libby, was convicted of perjury for making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Despite a personal request from Cheney, President Bush refused to issue a pardon for Libby. ³ Libby would later receive a pardon from then-President Donald Trump during the first Trump administration. ¹²

Cheney has been criticized for allegedly curtailing the access of his intra-administration rivals to President Bush, particularly high-ranking military officers and national security advisor and later Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He has also been criticized for secretly taking extraordinary unilateral action, particularly with the creation of a secret domestic surveillance program. Numerous high-ranking members of the U.S. Justice Department, including former FBI head Robert Mueller, declared the program illegal and threatened to resign. Cheney used his personal lawyer to compile legal defenses of the program and purposefully concealed the inter-governmental conflict from President Bush for months. Once Bush was notified, he ordered the Justice Department to alter Cheney’s program to make it compatible with U.S. law. ³

In 2007, Cheney survived a bombing assassination attempt in Afghanistan reportedly coordinated by Osama Bin Laden. ¹³

Post-Vice Presidency

In 2011, Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, co-authored a memoir of his vice presidency. Cheney stated that he had no regrets about his policies or conduct while in office. ⁵

In 2016, Cheney endorsed Donald Trump for president. ¹⁴ In 2022, Cheney denounced President Trump as the “greatest threat to our Republic” in response to President Trump’s rejection of the 2020 election results in an ad for the reelection campaign of his daughter, then-U.S. Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY). ¹⁵

In 2024, Cheney endorsed the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, for President. ¹⁶

Other Controversies

Hunting Accident

In 2006, Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter while quail hunting near Corpus Christi, Texas. The hunter was hospitalized with minor injuries. ¹⁷

Views on Same-Sex Marriage

In 2000, when Dick Cheney was then-Texas Governor George W. Bush’s running mate, Cheney publicly opposed Bush’s stance on same-sex marriage. Cheney’s views have been attributed to his daughter, Mary Cheney, who is a lesbian and advocate for LGBT interests. In 2004, Cheney opposed President Bush’s Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have prohibited recognition of same-sex marriage by any U.S. governmental unit. In 2009, Cheney stated that recognition of same-sex marriages should be a state issue. ¹⁸

In 2014, Cheney’s other daughter, Liz Cheney, ran for U.S. Senate in Wyoming. After receiving attacks that she was in favor of same-sex marriage due to her relationship with her sister, Liz announced that she was opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage. Mary responded on Facebook that Liz was “on the wrong side of history.” Dick Cheney released a statement in support of Liz, though he did not explicitly state any opposition to same-sex marriage. ¹⁸