Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (born January 30, 1941),
is the forty-sixth and current Vice President of the United States,
the President of the Senate. Previously, he has served as White House Chief of Staff, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wyoming, and
as Secretary of Defense. In the private sector, he has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton Company. On both
June 29, 2002, and July 21,
2007, he assumed the powers and duties of the Presidency as Acting President when President Bush
underwent a medical exam involving anesthesia. Under Cheney and his Chiefs of Staff I. Lewis
"Scooter" Libby, Jr. and David S. Addington the
Office of the Vice President has expanded in size.[1]
Although his last name is usually pronounced ['tʃeɪni] (chAYnee), the Vice President himself and his family pronounce it as ['tʃi:ni] (chEEnee).[2]
Early life and family
Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, to Richard
Herbert Cheney and Marjorie Lorraine Dickey. [3] He
attended Calvert Elementary School[4][5] before
his family moved to Casper, Wyoming,[6] where he attended Natrona County High School. His father was a soil conservation agent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. His mother was a softball star in the
1930s.[7] He has a brother and a sister. He attended
Yale University but says "I flunked out."[8][9] and later attended the
University of Wyoming where he earned both a B.A. and M.A. in political
science. He subsequently started, but did not finish, doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[6][10] In April of 2007
Cheney was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Brigham Young University, where he delivered the commencement address.[11]
In 1964, he married Lynne Vincent, his high-school sweetheart, whom he had met at age
fourteen. Mrs. Cheney served as Chair of the National Endowment for the
Humanities from 1986 to 1996. She is now a public speaker, author, and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Cheney has two children, Elizabeth and Mary,
and six grandchildren. Elizabeth, his eldest daughter, is married to Philip J. Perry, General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. Mary is one of her father's top campaign
aides and closest confidantes; she currently lives in Great Falls,
Virginia with her longtime partner, Heather Poe.[12] Mary's pregnancy and her sexual orientation as a
lesbian became a source of public attention for Cheney during the 2004 election in light of the same-sex marriage debate.[13]
Cheney attends the United Methodist Church.
Early arrests for drunk driving
In November 1962, at the age of twenty-one, Cheney was convicted for the first of two offenses of driving while intoxicated (DWI). According to the docket from the Municipal Court in
Cheyenne, Wyoming, Cheney was arrested for
drunkenness and, "operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated."[14] A Cheyenne Police Judge found Cheney guilty of the two charges. Cheney's driving license
was suspended for 30 days and he had to forfeit a $150 bond posted at the time of his arrest.
Eight months later, in July 1963, Cheney was arrested in Rock Springs,
Wyoming and fined $100 for his second DWI conviction. At the time, it was not possible for the
authorities in each area to link the two convictions, which would have resulted in the second offense being viewed much more
seriously. Since this arrest, Cheney has had no further convictions.[14]
Cheney discussed his record in a May 7, 2001, interview in
The New Yorker. Cheney said that he found himself, "working, building power lines,
having been in a couple of scrapes with the law."[15] He 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]
Cheney and the draft
Cheney was of military age and a supporter of the Vietnam War but he did not serve in the
war, applying for and receiving five draft deferments. In an interview
with George C. Wilson that appeared in the April 5, 1989 issue of
The Washington Post, when asked about his deferments the future Defense
Secretary said, "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service."[16] In January 1959 Mr. Cheney reached age 18 and was classified as 1-A —
available for service. At that time, however, the military was taking only older men, and like most others who were in college at
the time (Cheney was at Yale) he had little concern about being drafted. In June 1962, Cheney left Yale to return home to Casper,
where he worked as a lineman for a power company before enrolling at the University of Wyoming. In 1962, only 82,060 men were
inducted into the service, the fewest since 1949. While Cheney was eligible for the draft, as he said during his confirmation
hearings in 1989, he was not called up because the Selective Service System was
only taking older men.
By January 1963, with the US actively advising South Vietnamese forces, Cheney enrolled in Casper Community College and turned
22 that month. At that time, he sought his first student deferment, which was granted on March
20, according to records from the Selective Service System. After transferring to the University of Wyoming at Laramie, Cheney sought his second student deferment on July 23, 1963. On August 7, 1964, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which allowed
President Lyndon B. Johnson to use military force in Vietnam. From that point on,
American involvement in Vietnam began to escalate rapidly.
On August 29, 1964, 22 days after the resolution, Cheney
married his high school sweetheart, Lynne. He sought and was granted his third student deferment on October 14, 1964. In May 1965, Cheney graduated from college and his draft
status changed to 1-A. Since he was married, however, he had somewhat better protection from being drafted. In July 1965, Johnson
announced that he was doubling the number of men drafted. The number of inductions soared, to 382,010 in 1966 from 230,991 in
1965 and 112,386 in 1964.
On March 8, 1965, the first American regular combat units were
deployed in Vietnam. On October 6, 1965, the Selective Service
lifted its ban against drafting married men who had no children. Cheney obtained his fourth deferment because he started graduate
school at the University of Wyoming on November 1, 1965. On
January 19, 1966, when his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant,
Mr. Cheney applied for 3-A status, the "hardship" exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. It was
granted. In January 1967, Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft.[17]
Political career
Early White House appointments
Dick Cheney's political career began in 1969, as an intern for Congressman William A.
Steiger during the Nixon Administration. The intern Cheney then joined the staff of
Donald Rumsfeld, who was then Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from 1969–70. He held a number of 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. It was in this position that Cheney suggested in a memo to Rumsfeld that the Ford
White House should use the Justice Department in a variety of
legally questionable ways to exact retribution for an article published by New York Times investigative reporter
Seymour Hersh.[18]
From 1973–1974, Cheney had worked in the private sector as Vice President of Bradley, Woods, and Company, an investment
firm.[19]
White House Chief of Staff Cheney (right) and Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld
(left) meet with President Ford at the White House, April 1975.
Under President Gerald Ford, Cheney worked as Assistant to the President. Rumsfeld first
oversaw Ford's White House "transition team" and then later became Ford's Chief of
Staff. Rumsfeld was named Secretary of Defense, and Cheney
became Chief of Staff to the President. In addition, Cheney and Rumsfeld
successfully pushed for William Colby to be replaced by George H. W. Bush as the Director of Central
Intelligence, forging what would become a long-term relationship with the future president.
Cheney was campaign manager for Ford's 1976 Presidential
Campaign, while James Baker served as Campaign Chairman.
Congress
The Dick Cheney Federal Building in
Casper, Wyoming, is one of only two U.S. federal
buildings named for a living person.
In 1978, Cheney was elected to represent Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives to replace resigning Congressman Teno Roncalio, defeating his Democratic opponent, Bill Bailey. Cheney was reelected five times, serving
until 1989. He was Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981 to 1987 when he was elected Chairman of the
House Republican Conference. The
following year, he was elected House Minority
Whip.
Among the many votes he cast during his tenure in the House, he voted in 1979 with the majority against making
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a national holiday, and again voted with the majority in 1983 when the measure passed.
He voted against the creation of the U.S. Department of
Education, citing his concern over budget deficits and expansion of the federal government. He also claimed the Department
was an encroachment on states' rights.[20]
He also voted against funding Head Start. As a vice presidential candidate in 2000, he
reversed his position.[21]
In 1986, after President Ronald Reagan vetoed a bill to
impose economic sanctions against South Africa for its official policy of apartheid, Cheney was one of 83 Representatives who voted against
overriding the veto. In later years, Cheney articulated his opposition to "unilateral sanctions," against many different
countries, stating "they almost never work."[22] He also
opposed unilateral sanctions against Communist Cuba, and later in his career he would support
multilateral sanctions against Iraq. 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 majority Democrats defeated proposed amendments to the language
that would have required Mandela to renounce violence sponsored by the African
National Congress (ANC) and requiring the ANC to oust the Communist
faction from leadership. The resolution was defeated. Appearing on CNN during the Presidential campaign in 2000, 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."[23]
Cheney also served as ranking minority member of the Congressional committee investigating Iran-Contra — a scandal involving members of the Reagan Administration who helped to illegally sell
arms to Iran, and then used the proceeds to fund, also illegally, the Contras, a guerrilla militia
in Nicaragua resisting the elected Sandinista government.[24] In that role he supervised the production of a minority report, which strongly rejected the
majority finding[25] that a "cabal of zealots" in the
administration who had "disdain for the law" had violated the statute.[26][27]
As a Wyoming Representative, he was also known for his vigorous advocacy of the state's petroleum and coal businesses. The federal building in Casper, a regional center of the oil and coal business, was named the "Dick Cheney Federal
Building."
House Minority Whip
In December 1988, the House Republicans elected Cheney to the second spot in the leadership, but he only served two and a half
months, as he was appointed Secretary of Defense (see below) to replace former Texas Senator John G.
Tower, whose nomination had been rejected by the Senate in March 1989.
As it turned out, Cheney won his last term in the House in 1988, when he easily defeated the Democrat Bryan Sharratt, later a member of the Clinton administration defense team.
Secretary of Defense
Cheney served as the Secretary of Defense from March 1989 to
January 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. 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 for "preserving America's defenses at a time of great change around the world."[28]
Early tenure
Cheney generally focused on external matters and delegated most internal Pentagon management details to Deputy Secretary of
Defense Donald J. Atwood, Jr.[citation needed] He worked closely with Pete
Williams, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, and Paul Wolfowitz,
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. For Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
he selected General Colin Powell, who assumed the post on October 1, 1989.[citation needed] Many of Cheney's major decisions resulted from the almost daily meetings he
had in the Pentagon with Powell and Atwood.
Cheney met regularly with Bush and other top-level members of the Administration, including Secretary of State
James Baker, National Security Advisor Brent
Scowcroft, White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, and General
Powell[citation needed]. Occasionally Bush consulted with
Cheney on matters unrelated to defense, such as White House organization and management. When not at the White House, Cheney was
often on Capitol Hill[citation needed]. He understood how Congress, and more particularly the legislative process,
operated, and he used this knowledge and experience to get along well with Congress and with the Department of Defense's main
oversight committees in the House and the Senate.[citation needed]
Political climate and agenda
Although some of the usual turf battles between the State and Defense Departments continued during his term,[citation needed] Cheney and Secretary of State Baker
were old friends and avoided the acrimony that sometimes occurred between the two departments during the Weinberger period.[citation needed] On the important problem of arms control, Cheney and Powell tried to reach
consensus on Department of Defense's position in order to deal more effectively with the State Department.[citation needed] After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cheney worried about the dangers of
nuclear proliferation and effective control of nuclear weapons from the Soviet
nuclear arsenal that had come under the control of newly independent republics — Belarus,
Ukraine, and Kazakhstan — as well as in Russia
itself.[citation needed] Cheney warned about the
possibility that other nations, such as Iraq, Iran, and
North Korea, would acquire nuclear components after the Soviet collapse. He supported the
initiatives that President Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin took in 1991 and 1992
to cut back the production and deployment of nuclear weapons and to move toward new arms control agreements.[citation needed]
The end of the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the disintegration of the
Warsaw Pact obliged the Bush Administration to reevaluate NATO's purpose and makeup. How to restructure the alliance and modify its strategy to reflect changes in the
military situation posed major questions for Cheney.[citation needed] He believed that NATO had to remain the foundation of European security
relationships and that it would continue to be important to the United States in the long term. At the last NATO meeting he
attended, in Brussels in December 1992, Cheney said that the alliance needed to lend more
assistance to the new democracies in Eastern Europe and eventually offer them membership
in NATO. He told his NATO colleagues that Central and Eastern Europe presented the most threatening potential security problems
in the years ahead. The current problem was East and West versus instability rather than East versus West.[citation needed]
Cheney's views on NATO reflected his skepticism about prospects for peaceful evolution in the former Soviet areas. He saw high
potential for uncertainty and instability, and he felt that the Bush Administration was too optimistic in supporting
Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev
and his successor, Boris Yeltsin. Cheney believed that as the United States downsized its
military forces, reduced its troops in Europe, and moved forward with arms control, it needed to keep a watchful eye on Russia
and other successor states of the Soviet Union.
Budgetary practices
His most immediate and pressing problem was at the Pentagon was the Department of Defense budget. President Bush had already
said publicly that the proposed FY 1990 Defense budget of more than $300 Billion had to be cut immediately by $6.3 Billion, and
soon after Cheney began work, the President increased the amount to $10 Billion.[citation needed] Cheney recognized the necessity of cutting the budget and downsizing the
military establishment, but he favored a cautious approach. In making decisions on the FY 1990 budget, Secretary Cheney had to
confront the wish list of each of the armed services. The Air Force wanted to buy 312 B-2 stealth
bombers at over $500 million each; the Marine Corps wanted 12 V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor
helicopters, $136 million each; the Army wanted some $240 million in FY 1990 to move toward production of the LHX, a new reconnaissance and attack helicopter, to cost $33 billion eventually; and the Navy wanted 5
Aegis guided-missile destroyers, at a cost of $3.6 billion. A policy on ballistic
missiles also posed a difficult choice. One option was to build 50 more MX missiles
to join the 50 already on hand, at a cost of about $10 billion. A decision had to be made on how to base the MX — whether on
railroad cars or in some other mode. Another option was to build 500 single-warhead Midgetman
missiles, still in the development stage, at an estimated cost of $24 billion.[citation needed]
In April, Cheney recommended to Bush that the United States move ahead to deploy the 50 MXs and discontinue the Midgetman
project. While not unalterably opposed to the Midgetman, Cheney questioned how to pay for it in a time of shrinking defense
budgets. Cheney's plan encountered opposition both inside the Bush Administration and in Congress. Bush decided not to take
Cheney's advice; he said he would seek funding to put the MXs on railroad cars by the mid-1990s and to develop the Midgetman,
with a goal of 250 to 500.[citation needed]
Secretary of Defense Cheney delivering a speech before the launch of a new destroyer.
When Cheney's FY 1990 Budget came before Congress in the summer of 1989, the Senate Armed Services Committee made only minor
amendments, but the House Armed Services Committee cut the strategic accounts and favored the V-22, F-14D, and other projects not high on Cheney's list. The House and Senate in November 1989 finally settled
on a budget somewhere between the preferences of the Administration and the House Committee. Congress avoided a final decision on
the MX/Midgetman issue by authorizing a $1 billion missile modernization account to be apportioned as the president saw fit.
Funding for the F-14D was to continue for another year, providing 18 more aircraft in the program. Congress authorized only
research funds for the V-22 and cut the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star
Wars") funding more than $1 billion, much to the displeasure of President Bush.[citation needed]
In subsequent years under Cheney the budgets proposed and the final outcomes followed patterns similar to the FY 1990 Budget
experience. Early in 1991 the secretary unveiled a plan to reduce military strength by the mid-1990s to 1.6 million, compared to
2.2 million when he entered office. In his budget proposal for FY 1993, his last one, Cheney asked for termination of the B-2
program at 20 aircraft, cancellation of the Midgetman, and limitations on advanced cruise missile purchases to those already
authorized. When introducing this budget, Cheney complained that Congress had directed Defense to buy weapons it did not want,
including the V-22, M-1 tanks, and F-14 and
F-16 aircraft, and required it to maintain some unneeded reserve forces. His plan
outlined about $50 billion less in budget authority over the next 5 years than the Bush Administration had proposed in 1991. Sen.
Sam Nunn of the Senate Armed
Services Committee said that the 5-year cuts ought to be $85 Billion, and Rep. Les
Aspin of the House Armed Services Committee put
the figure at $91 Billion.[citation needed]
Over Cheney's four years as Secretary of Defense, encompassing budgets for Fiscal Years 1990–93, the Department of Defense's
total obligational authority in current dollars declined from $291.3 billion to $269.9 billion. Except for FY 1991, when the TOA
Budget increased by 1.7 percent, the Cheney budgets showed negative real growth: -2.9 percent in 1990, -9.8 percent in 1992, and
-8.1 percent in 1993. During this same period total military personnel declined by 19.4 percent, from 2.202 million in FY 1989 to
1.776 million in FY 1993. The Army took the largest cut, from 770,000 to 572,000 — 25.8 percent of its strength. The Air Force
declined by 22.3 percent, the Navy by 14 percent, and the Marines by 9.7 percent.[citation needed]
The V-22 question caused friction between Cheney and Congress throughout his tenure. The Department of Defense spent some of
the money Congress appropriated to develop the aircraft, but Congressional sources accused Cheney, who continued to oppose the
Osprey, of violating the law by not moving ahead as Congress had directed. Cheney argued that building and testing the prototype
Osprey would cost more than the amount appropriated. In early 1992 several Congressional supporters of the V-22 threatened to
take Cheney to court over the issue. A little later, in the face of suggestions from Congressional Republicans that Cheney's
opposition to the Osprey was hurting President Bush's reelection campaign, especially in Texas and Pennsylvania where the
aircraft would be built, Cheney relented and suggested spending $1.5 billion in Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993 to develop it. He made
clear that he personally still opposed the Osprey and favored a less costly alternative.[citation needed]
International situations
Panama, controlled by General Manuel Antonio Noriega,
the head of the country's military, against whom a U.S. grand jury had entered an indictment for drug trafficking in February
1988, held Cheney's attention almost from the time he took office. [citation needed] Using economic sanctions and political pressure, the United States mounted
a campaign to drive Noriega from power. In May 1989 after Guillermo Endara had been
duly elected President of Panama, Noriega nullified the election outcome, incurring intensified U.S. pressure on him. In October
Noriega succeeded in quelling a military coup, but in December, after his defense forces shot a U.S. serviceman, 24,000 U.S. troops invaded Panama. Within a few days they achieved control and Endara
assumed the Presidency.
Noriega took refuge in the Vatican's embassy in Panama City, the Papal Nuncio, and the Vatican initially rejected U.S. demands
that they turn Noriega over to U.S. forces, saying "the church believed that his asylum request had certain legitimate political
dimensions."[29] U.S. forces arrested Noriega and flew
him to Miami where he was held until his trial, which led to his conviction and imprisonment on racketeering and drug trafficking
charges in April 1992.
Cheney took a strong stand against use of U.S. ground troops in the Bosnian
War between Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians that began in April 1992. [citation needed] After the collapse of a collective presidency in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the country split into several independent republics, including the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which declared its independence in March
1992. Whether and how to intervene in Bosnia evoked an emotional debate in the United States, but Cheney left office before any
firm decisions were made, and his successors inherited the knotty issue.
In Somalia also, a civil war that began in 1991
claimed the world's attention. In August 1992 the United States began to provide humanitarian assistance, primarily food, through
a military airlift. In December, only a month before he left office, at President Bush's direction Cheney dispatched the first of
26,000 U.S. troops to Somalia as part of the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), designed to
provide security and food relief. Cheney's successors as Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin and
William J. Perry, had to contend with both the Bosnian and Somali issues.
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
Secretary of Defense Cheney during a press conference regarding the Gulf War.
Cheney's biggest challenge came in the Persian Gulf. On August 1, 1990, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein sent invading forces into neighboring Kuwait, a small
oil-rich country long claimed by Iraq. An estimated 140,000 Iraqi troops quickly took control of Kuwait City and moved on to the Saudi Arabia/Kuwait border. The United
States had already begun to develop contingency plans for defense of Saudi Arabia by the U.S. Central Command, headed by General Norman
Schwarzkopf.
US and world reaction
Shortly after the Iraqi invasion, Cheney made the first of several visits to Saudi Arabia and secured King Fahd's permission to bring U.S. troops into the country. The United Nations took action, passing a series of resolutions condemning Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and
eventually demanded that Iraq withdraw its forces by January 15, 1991. By then, the United States had a force of about 500,000 stationed in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Other
nations, including Great Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Syria, and Egypt, contributed troops, and other allies, most notably Germany and
Japan, agreed to provide financial support for the coalition effort, named Operation Desert Shield.
As the military buildup in Saudi Arabia (Desert Shield) proceeded in the fall of 1990 and as the UN coalition moved toward
military action, Cheney worked closely with General Powell in directing the movement of U.S. personnel, equipment, and supplies
to Saudi Arabia. He participated intently with Powell, Schwarzkopf, and others in overseeing planning for the operation. Cheney,
according to Powell, "had become a glutton for information, with an appetite we could barely satisfy. He spent hours in the
National Military Command Center peppering my staff with questions." When hostilities began in January 1991, Cheney turned most
other Department of Defense matters over to Deputy Secretary Atwood. Cheney spent many hours briefing Congress during the air and
ground phases of the war.
