Richard Cheney

(b. 1941)
Richard Cheney's role as vice president under George W. Bush is his latest in a long career in both government and the private sector. The former Congressman from Wyoming served in two Republican administrations prior to this one, as Gerald Ford's chief of staff and as George H.W. Bush's secretary of Defense.

Profile

Dick Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and educated at the University of Wyoming and the University of Wisconsin. His first government position was as special assistant to Donald Rumsfeld, director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, in 1969 and 1970. He next served as a White House staff assistant in 1970 and 1971 and as assistant director of the Cost of Living Council from 1971 to 1973 before briefly returning to private life. In 1974 Cheney returned to government service as deputy assistant to President Gerald Ford. Cheney became deputy White House chief of staff and then served as chief of staff from 1975 to 1977.

In 1978 Cheney was elected to the Congress of the United States from Wyoming and served in the House of Representatives until 1989, when President George Bush named him secretary of defense. In this Cabinet position, which he held until 1993, Cheney advocated cutting $10 billion from President Ronald Reagan's proposed defense budget and opposed selling supercomputers to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Cheney believed that Congress interfered too much with what he considered the president's prerogative in designing U.S. foreign policy. Cheney is vice president of the United States in the George W. Bush administration.

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