For over 40 years, Dick Cheney has served at the highest levels of the US Government and private sector. As White House Chief of Staff in the aftermath of Watergate and America’s withdrawal from Vietnam, Wyoming’s Congressman and a member of the House Republican leadership during the Reagan years, Secretary of Defense as the Cold War ended and America defeated Iraq in Desert Storm, CEO of Halliburton, and Vice President of the United States on 9/11 at the dawn of the Global War on Terror, Cheney has participated in many of the events that have shaped our nation for over four decades. Few Americans alive today can match the breadth and depth of his experience and service.
As a statesman, policymaker, businessman, and politician – who never lost an election in which his name was on the ballot--Cheney’s insight, experiences and knowledge are unparalleled.
46th Vice President of the United States
Widely acknowledged as the most powerful and influential Vice President ever, Dick Cheney is an historic figure. While serving in the nation’s second highest office, he transformed national security and intelligence policy. In the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, he expanded the authority of the executive branch, and played a major role in creating policies that protected America and her citizens from further attacks. Domestically he was pivotal in reorganizing the government to defend the homeland, negotiating the Bush Administration’s tax cuts, chairing the Energy Task Force, and overseeing the annual federal budget process. Cheney also played an instrumental role in personnel matters as he managed the transition to power in 2000, following the closest presidential election in American history, overseeing the selection of President George W. Bush’s first Cabinet, and later screening nominees for the U.S. Supreme Court.
An Unparalleled Public Career
Seven years after arriving in Washington DC in 1968 as a graduate student, Cheney became one of the youngest White House Chiefs of Staff in history. Cheney oversaw the Ford presidential campaign in 1976, and then returned home to Wyoming. Elected as Wyoming’s lone Congressman in 1978, he became one of the few members of Congress since the Civil War to be elected to a leadership position after only one term in office. Cheney served as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, the Republican Conference and as Republican Whip. He was also the ranking Republican on the Iran-Contra committee, and served for over 4 years as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In 1989, he was nominated by President George Bush to serve as Secretary of Defense and was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate. In his four years at the Pentagon, Cheney helped to lead American forces to victory in Operation Just Cause in Panama, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf. He also oversaw the restructuring of the US military following the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. In 1991, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
A Leader in the Private Sector
In the mid 1990s, Cheney became Chairman and CEO of Halliburton, one of the world’s foremost energy firms as well as an engineering and construction company with 100,000 employees in 130 countries around the world. As Halliburton’s leader, from 1995 to 2000, Cheney oversaw oil and gas projects in the North Sea, the Indian Ocean, on the North Slope of Alaska, and in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. During his tenure, Halliburton construction projects ranged from a domed ballpark for the Houston Astros to a railroad across the Australian Outback.
A Voice for a Strong and Free America
During the major crises of the last forty years, from the end of the war in Vietnam, through the Cold War, to the demise of the Soviet Union, to the rise of Islamic extremism, Dick Cheney has been at the center of the policy debate. He brings a unique perspective to the economic and geopolitical challenges of our time and is unequalled as a spokesman for a strong America, one that remains the best hope of those who suffer and live in fear and the strongest force for good the world has ever known.
Dick Cheney through the Media's Lens
"Dick Cheney is the most influential and powerful man ever to hold the office of Vice President." [The Washington Post from online presentation of Angler series]
Cheney "has been the intellectual godfather" of the administration’s aggressive conduct of the war on terror and the expansion of presidential powers. "Cheney has an encyclopedic knowledge of national security policy and the federal government." [US News and World Report, "How Dick Cheney’s View of the World is Driving US Policy," Jan 23, 2006]
"It will be months and probably years before the full scope of Cheney’s power—where it started and stopped—will be fully understood." [Time Magazine, January 19, 2009]
"Before Cheney, discussion about the vice presidency focused on how to make the office stronger, more effective. Not anymore." [Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio, "Cheney: A VP With Unprecedented Power" January 16, 2009]
