Richard B. Cheney

46th Vice President of the United States
Secretary of Defense
Six Term Congressman, House Minority Whip
White House Chief of Staff
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton

For over 40 years, Dick Cheney has served at the highest levels of both the public and private sectors.  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 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.

An Unparalleled Public Career

Seven years after arriving in Washington, D.C. 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, where he was elected to years later as Wyoming's lone Congressman.  His tenure in Congress was highly distinguished:  he became one of the few members of Congress since the Civil War to be elected to a leaderhip position after only one term in office.  Re-elected five times, he served as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, the Republican Conference, and as Republican Whip.  He was the ranking Republican on the Iran-Contra committee, and served for over 4 years as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intellegence.

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 United States 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.

George W. Bush named Cheney to head his vice presidential selection committee and then ended-up selecting Cheney himself to be his running mate in the 2000 election.  Dick Cheney has been widely-acknowledged as the most powerful and influential Vice President ever.  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 Administrations 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.

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.

Dick Cheney through the Media's Lens

• "Dick Cheney is the most influential and powerful men ever to hold the office of Vice President."  Washington Post (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."  U.S. News and World Report, "The Cheney Factor," January 15, 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."  Michael Duffy, Time Magazine, "As Cheney Prepares to Depart, His Mystery Lingers," 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