Facts about Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney Biography
Dick Cheney was vice president of the United States from 2001-09, under president George W. Bush.
Dick Cheney grew up in Wyoming, where he also earned his college degrees. A staff member in the administration of Richard Nixon, Cheney then became the White House chief of staff under Gerald Ford. Cheney was elected to the House of Representatives from Wyoming in 1978 and quickly rose in the ranks of the Republican party; he also served as vice chairman of the committee investigating the Iran-Contra scandal during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Under President George Bush the elder, Cheney served as Secretary of Defense and played a major role in the Persian Gulf War. Cheney then worked in the oil industry as a top executive for the Halliburton Company before his return to government in 2001.
Cheney became a major cheerleader for the American war on Iraq in the wake of the attacks of 9/11/2021. He supported the torture of captured enemies and alleged enemies, and continued to support the war long after it had become an evident failure. Cheney’s ties to Halliburton became a source of controversy in 2003, when his old company received a major contract to help rebuild Iraq after the U.S. invasion.
Bush and Cheney were re-elected in 2004, narrowly beating a Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards. Dick Cheney did not choose to run for president in 2008. He was succeeded in 2009 by Democratic vice president Joe Biden.
Extra credit
Dick Cheney’s wife, Lynne Cheney, served in the Reagan and Bush (the elder) administrations as chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities… Dick Cheney suffered at least five heart attacks, the first at age 37, and his health issues were much publicized during his vice presidency; the surgical repairs to Cheney’s heart included the placement of a stent originally designed by Segway inventor Dean Kamen. Cheney received a full heart transplant on March 23, 2012… Dick Cheney shot 78-year-old fellow hunter Harry Whittington while on a quail-hunting trip in Texas on February 11, 2006. According to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, “Cheney turned to shoot quail that had just been flushed, accidentally peppering one side of Whittington’s body.” Whittington was hospitalized but did not seem seriously injured until two days later, when he suffered a minor heart attack reportedly caused by bird shot shifting in his body. He was released from the hospital a few days later. Whittington died in 2023, two years before Cheney.