 |
When Democratic
presidential candidate Bill Clinton won the 1992 election, Dick
Cheney again left Washington and entered the private sector. In
1995, Halliburton -- then a second-tier oilfield services firm
-- recruited Cheney to be its new chairman and chief executive
officer. Benefiting from his contacts in oil-rich Middle Eastern
nations, Cheney helped transform the Texas-based firm into one
of the world's largest energy and infrastructure construction
companies, employing some 100,000 people in over 120 countries
with reported 2003 revenues of $16 billion.
Cheney
briefly considered a run for president in 1996, but opted to remain
at Halliburton. Nevertheless, he continued to pursue his interests
in politics and foreign policy as one of 25 founding members of
the Project for the New American Century in 1997, a think tank
aimed to "restore American global leadership" whose
members include other conservative Republicans.
In the summer
of 2000, Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush enlisted
Cheney to head his vice presidential selection committee. The
group vetted several possibilities, but Mr. Bush ultimately persuaded
an initially reluctant Cheney to be his running mate. That year,
Cheney, 59, formally resigned from Halliburton and sold nearly
half of his company stock, worth $5 million, ahead of officially
joining the Bush ticket.
While the
courts put on hold the outcome of the 2000 presidential election,
Cheney suffered a slight heart attack that November and underwent
an angioplasty procedure.
-- By
Liz Harper, Online NewsHour
|
|
