Vice President Dick Cheney
Forty-sixth Vice President of the United States
Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney was the forty-sixth vice president of the United States, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001-2009.
Cheney’s political career started as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger, then eventually went on to serve as special assistant to Donald Rumsfeld in the Office of Economic Opportunity in the Nixon administration. When Rumsfeld was named Secretary of Defense in 1975, Cheney was appointed as President Gerald Ford’s chief of staff. He returned to Wyoming after Ford lost the presidential election to Jimmy Carter in 1976 and worked briefly in the private sector before running for the state’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He soundly defeated his Democratic rival, Bill Bagley, in the 1978 election, and was reelected five times. He rose through the ranks to become minority whip. Cheney served as President George H.W. Bush’s defense secretary and commanded the Pentagon during the Persian Gulf War. During the Clinton presidency, he was CEO of the Halliburton Company from 1995-200.
As vice president, Cheney was active and used his influence to help shape the administration’s energy policy and foreign policy in the Middle East. In 2018, the movie Vice was released as a depiction of Cheney’s time as vice president.
