Dick Cheney

Dick Cheney
46th Vice President of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2001
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Al Gore
Succeeded by	Joe Biden (Vice President-elect)
17th United States Secretary of Defense
In office March 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993
President	George H. W. Bush
Deputy	Donald J. Atwood, Jr.
Preceded by	Frank Carlucci
Succeeded by	Les Aspin
15th U.S. House Minority Whip
In office January 3 – March 20, 1989
Leader	Robert H. Michel
Preceded by	Trent Lott
Succeeded by	Newt Gingrich
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wyoming‘s At-Large Congressional District
In office January 3, 1979 – March 20, 1989
Preceded by	Teno Roncalio
Succeeded by	Craig Thomas
7th White House Chief of Staff
In office November 21, 1975 – January 20, 1977
President	Gerald R. Ford
Preceded by	Donald Rumsfeld
Succeeded by	Hamilton Jordan
Personal details
Born	(1941-01-30) January 30, 1941 Lincoln, Nebraska, United States
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Lynne Cheney
Children	Elizabeth Cheney Mary Cheney
Residence	Number One Observatory Circle
Alma mater	Yale University University of Wyoming University of Wisconsin-Madison
Signature
Website	Richard B. Cheney

Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (born January 30, 1941) is the forty-sixth and current Vice President of the United States. As Vice President, Cheney is also the President of the United States Senate.

Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, but soon moved with his family to Casper, Wyoming, where he grew up. He began his political career as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger, eventually working his way into the White House during the Ford administration where he served as White House Chief of Staff. In 1978, Cheney was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Wyoming; he was reelected five times, eventually becoming House Minority Whip. Cheney was selected to be the Secretary of Defense during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, holding the position for the majority of Bush's term. During this time, Cheney oversaw the 1991 Operation Desert Storm, among other actions.

Out of office during the Clinton presidency, Cheney was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton Company from 1995 to 2000.

Cheney joined the presidential campaign of George W. Bush in 2000, who selected him as his running mate. As Vice President, Cheney remains a very public and controversial figure.

Early life and family

Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of Marjorie Lorraine (née Dickey) and Richard Herbert Cheney. He is of predominantly English, Irish and Welsh ancestry. Although not a direct descendant, he is collaterally related to Benjamin Pierce Cheney (1815-1895), the early American expressman. He attended Calvert Elementary School before his family moved to Casper, Wyoming, where he attended Natrona County High School. His father was a soil conservation agent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and his mother was a softball star in the 1930s; Cheney has a brother and a sister as well. He attended Yale University, but, as he stated, "[he] flunked out." Amongst the influential teachers from his days in New Haven was Professor H. Bradford Westerfield, whom Cheney repeatedly credited with having helped to shape his hard-line approach to foreign policy. He later attended the University of Wyoming where he earned both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in political science. He subsequently started, but did not finish, doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In November 1962, at the age of 21, Cheney was convicted of driving while intoxicated (DWI). He was arrested for DWI again the following year. Cheney said that the arrests made him, "think about where I was and where I was headed. I was headed down a bad road if I continued on that course."

Marriage and children

In 1964, he married Lynne Vincent, his high school sweetheart, whom he had met at age 14. Lynne Cheney served as Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1986 to 1996. She is now a public speaker, author, and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Cheney is a Christian, attending the United Methodist Church. He has two children, Elizabeth and Mary, and six grandchildren. Elizabeth, his eldest daughter, is married to Philip J. Perry, General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. Mary Cheney, a former employee of the Colorado Rockies baseball team and Coors Brewing Company and campaign aide to the Bush re-election campaign, currently lives in Great Falls, Virginia with her longtime partner Heather Poe.

Vietnam War draft

When Cheney became eligible for the draft, he was a supporter of the Vietnam War but did not serve in the military. Instead, he applied for and received five draft deferments. In 1989, The Washington Post writer, George C. Wilson, interviewed Cheney as the next Secretary of Defense; when asked about his deferments, Cheney reportedly said, "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service." Cheney testified during his confirmation hearings in 1989 that he received deferments to finish a college career that lasted six years rather than four, owing to sub par academic performance and the need to work to pay for his education. Initially, he was not called up because the Selective Service System was only taking older men. When he became eligible for the draft, he applied for four deferments in sequence. He applied for his fifth exemption on January 19, 1966, when his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant. He was granted 3-A status, the "hardship" exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. In January 1967, Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft.

Early White House appointments

White House Chief of Staff Cheney (right) and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (left) meet with President Gerald Ford at the White House, April 1975

Cheney's political career began in 1969, as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger during the Nixon Administration. He then joined the staff of Donald Rumsfeld, who was then Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from 1969–70. He held several positions in the years that followed: White House Staff Assistant in 1971, Assistant Director of the Cost of Living Council from 1971–73, and Deputy Assistant to the president from 1974–1975. It was in this position that Cheney suggested in a memo to Rumsfeld that the Ford White House should use the Justice Department in a variety of legally questionable ways to exact retribution for an article published by The New York Times investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.

Cheney was Assistant to the President under Gerald Ford. When Rumsfeld was named Secretary of Defense, Cheney became White House Chief of Staff, succeeding Rumsfeld. He later was campaign manager for Ford's 1976 presidential campaign as well.

Congress

In 1978, Cheney was elected to represent Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives and succeed retiring Congressman Teno Roncalio, having defeated his Democratic opponent, Bill Bailey. Cheney was reelected five times, serving until 1989. He was Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981 to 1987 when he was elected Chairman of the House Republican Conference. The following year, he was elected House Minority Whip.

Votes

Among the many votes he cast during his tenure in the House, he voted in 1979 with the majority against making Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a national holiday, but then voted with the majority in 1983 when the measure passed. He voted against the creation of the U.S. Department of Education, citing his concern over budget deficits and expansion of the federal government, and claiming that the Department was an encroachment on states' rights. He voted against funding Head Start, but reversed his position in 2000.

In 1986, after President Ronald Reagan vetoed a bill to impose economic sanctions on South Africa for its policy of apartheid, Cheney was one of 83 Representatives to vote against overriding Reagan's veto. In later years, he articulated his opposition to unilateral sanctions against many different countries, stating "they almost never work" and that in that case they might have ended up hurting the people instead.

In 1986, Cheney, along with 145 Republicans and 31 Democrats, voted against a non-binding Congressional resolution calling on the South African government to release Nelson Mandela from prison, after the Democrats defeated proposed amendments that would have required Mandela to renounce violence sponsored by the African National Congress (ANC) and requiring it to oust the communist faction from its leadership; the resolution was defeated. Appearing on CNN, Cheney addressed criticism for this, saying he opposed the resolution because the ANC "at the time was viewed as a terrorist organization and had a number of interests that were fundamentally inimical to the United States."

Cheney also served as ranking minority member of the Congressional committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair. He promoted Wyoming's petroleum and coal businesses as well, and as a result, the federal building in Casper, a regional center of the oil and coal business, is named the "Dick Cheney Federal Building."

House Minority Whip

In December 1988, the House Republicans elected Cheney as Minority Whip, the second spot under the Minority Leader. He served for two and a half months before he was appointed Secretary of Defense instead of former Texas Senator John G. Tower, whose nomination had been rejected by the Senate in March 1989.

Secretary of Defense

Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney

Cheney served as the Secretary of Defense from March 1989 to January 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. He directed the United States invasion of Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East. In 1991 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush.

Early tenure

Cheney worked closely with Pete Williams, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, and Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, from the beginning of his tenure. He focused primarily on external matters, and left most internal Pentagon management to Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald J. Atwood, Jr.

Budgetary practices

Cheney's most immediate issue as Secretary of Defense was the Department of Defense budget. Cheney deemed it appropriate to cut the budget and downsize the military, following President Ronald Reagan's peacetime defense buildup at the height of the Cold War. As part of the fiscal year 1990 budget, Cheney assessed the requests from each of the branches of the armed services for such expensive programs as the B-2 stealth bomber, the V-22 Osprey tilt-wing helicopter, the Aegis destroyer and the MX missile, totaling approximately $4.5 billion in light of changed world politics. Cheney opposed the V-22 program, which Congress had already appropriated funds for, and initially refused to issue contracts for it before relenting. When the 1990 Budget came before Congress in the summer of 1989, it settled on a figure between the Administration's request and the House Armed Services Committee's recommendation.

Secretary of Defense Cheney delivering a speech before the launch of a new destroyer.

In subsequent years under Cheney, the proposed and adopted budgets followed patterns similar to that of 1990. Early in 1991, he unveiled a plan to reduce military strength by the mid-1990s to 1.6 million, compared with 2.2 million when he entered office. Cheney's 1993 defense budget was reduced from 1992, omitting programs that Congress had directed the Department of Defense to buy weapons that it did not want, and omitting unrequested reserve forces.

Over his four years as Secretary of Defense, Cheney downsized the military and his budgets showed negative real growth, despite pressures to acquire weapon systems advocated by Congress. The Department of Defense's total obligational authority in current dollars declined from $291 billion to $270 billion. Total military personnel strength decreased by 19 percent, from about 2.2 million in 1989 to about 1.8 million in 1993.

Political climate and agenda

Cheney publicly expressed concern that nations such as Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, could acquire nuclear components after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The end of the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact obliged the first Bush Administration to reevaluate the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) purpose and makeup. Cheney believed that NATO should remain the foundation of European security relationships and that it would remain important to the United States in the long term; he urged the alliance to lend more assistance to the new democracies in Eastern Europe.

Cheney's views on NATO reflected his skepticism about prospects for peaceful social development in the former Eastern Bloc countries, where he saw a high potential for political uncertainty and instability. He felt that the Bush Administration was too optimistic in supporting Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and his successor, Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Cheney worked to maintain strong ties between the United States and its European allies.

Cheney persuaded the Saudi Arabian leaders to allow bases of American ground troops and war planes in the nation, which became an important element of the success of the Gulf War.

International situations

Using economic sanctions and political pressure, the United States mounted a campaign to drive Panamanian ruler General Manuel Antonio Noriega from power. In May 1989, after Guillermo Endara had been duly elected President of Panama, Noriega nullified the election outcome, drawing intensified pressure. In October, Noriega suppressed a military coup attempt, but in December, after his defense forces shot a U.S. serviceman, 24,000 U.S. troops invaded Panama under Cheney's direction. The stated reason for the invasion was to seize Noriega to face drug charges in the United States, protect American lives and property, and restore Panamanian civil liberties. Although the mission was controversial, American forces achieved control and Endara assumed the Presidency; Noriega was convicted and imprisoned on racketeering and drug trafficking charges in April 1992.

Secretary of Defense Cheney during a press conference regarding the Gulf War

In 1991, the Somali Civil War drew the world's attention. In August 1992, the United States began to provide humanitarian assistance, primarily food, through a military airlift. At President Bush's direction, Cheney dispatched the first of 26,000 U.S. troops to Somalia as part of the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), designed to provide security and food relief. Cheney's successors as Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin and William J. Perry, had to contend with both the Bosnian and Somali issues.

Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

Cheney would face a big challenge in the Persian Gulf, on August 1, 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent invading forces into neighboring Kuwait, a small oil-rich country long claimed by Iraq. An estimated 140,000 Iraqi troops quickly took control of Kuwait City and moved on to the Saudi Arabia/Kuwait border. The United States had already begun to develop contingency plans for defense of Saudi Arabia by the U.S. Central Command, headed by General Norman Schwarzkopf.

US and world reaction

Cheney meets with Prince Sultan, Minister of Defence and Aviation in Saudi Arabia to discuss how to handle the invasion of Kuwait

Cheney and Schwarzkopf oversaw planning for what would become a full-scale U.S. military operation. According to General Colin Powell, Cheney "had become a glutton for information, with an appetite we could barely satisfy. He spent hours in the National Military Command Center peppering my staff with questions."

Shortly after the Iraqi invasion, Cheney made the first of several visits to Saudi Arabia where King Fahd requested U.S. military assistance. The United Nations took action as well, passing a series of resolutions condemning Iraq's invasion of Kuwait; the UN Security Council authorized "all means necessary" to eject Iraq from Kuwait, and demanded that the country withdraw its forces by January 15, 1991. By then, the United States had a force of about 500,000 stationed in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Other nations, including Great Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Syria, and Egypt, contributed troops, and other allies, most notably Germany and Japan, agreed to provide financial support for the coalition effort, named Operation Desert Shield.

On January 12, 1991, both Houses of Congress authorized the President to use military force to secure Iraq's compliance with UN resolutions on Kuwait.

Military action

The first phase of Operation Desert Storm, which began on January 17, 1991, was an air offensive to secure air superiority and attack Iraq's forces, targeting key Iraqi command and control centers, including Baghdad and Basra. Cheney turned most other Department of Defense matters over to Deputy Secretary Atwood and briefed Congress during the air and ground phases of the war. He flew with General Powell to the region (specifically Riyadh) to review and finalize the ground war plans.

After an air offensive of more than five weeks, the UN coalition launched the ground war on February 24. Within 100 hours, Iraqi forces had been routed from Kuwait and General Schwarzkopf reported that the basic objective—expelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait—had been met on February 27. After consultation with Cheney and other members of his national security team, President Bush declared a suspension of hostilities.

Aftermath

A total of 147 U.S. military personnel died in combat, and another 236 died as a result of accidents or other causes. Iraq agreed to a formal truce on March 3, and a permanent cease-fire on April 6. There was subsequent debate about whether the UN coalition should have driven as far as Baghdad to oust Saddam Hussein from power. President Bush agreed that the decision to end the ground war when they did was correct, but the debate persisted as Hussein remained in power and rebuilt his military forces. Arguably the most significant debate concerned whether U.S. and coalition forces had left Iraq too soon. In an April 15, 1994 interview with C-SPAN, Cheney explained that occupying and attempting to take over the country would have been a "bad idea" and would have led to a "quagmire."

Cheney regarded the Gulf War as an example of the kind of regional problem the United States was likely to continue to face in the future.

We're always going to have to be involved [in the Middle East]. Maybe it's part of our national character, you know we like to have these problems nice and neatly wrapped up, put a ribbon around it. You deploy a force, you win the war and the problem goes away and it doesn't work that way in the Middle East it never has and isn't likely to in my lifetime.

Private sector career

Between 1987 and 1989, during his last term in Congress, Cheney was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations foreign policy organization.

With the new Democratic administration under President Bill Clinton in January 1993, Cheney left the Department of Defense and joined the American Enterprise Institute. He also served a second term as a Council on Foreign Relations director from 1993 to 1995. From 1995 until 2000, he served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton, a Fortune 500 company and market leader in the energy sector.

Cheney's record as CEO was subject to some dispute among Wall Street analysts; a 1998 merger between Halliburton and Dresser Industries attracted the criticism of some Dresser executives for Halliburton's lack of accounting transparency. During Cheney's tenure, Halliburton changed its accounting practices regarding revenue realization of disputed costs on major construction projects. Cheney resigned as CEO of Halliburton on July 25, 2000. As vice president, he argued that this step removed any conflict of interest. Cheney's net worth, estimated to be between $30 million and $100 million, is largely derived from his post at Halliburton, as well as the Cheneys gross income of nearly $8.82 million.

In 1997, along with Donald Rumsfeld, William Kristol and others, Cheney founded the "Project for the New American Century," a neoconservative U.S. think tank whose self-stated goal is to "promote American global leadership." He was also part of the board of advisors of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) before becoming vice president.

Vice President

2000 election

See also: United States presidential election, 2000

File:Vp 008.jpg

Vice President Cheney with General LaPorte during his visit to Yongsan Garrison, 2003

In early 2000, while serving as the CEO of Halliburton, Cheney headed George W. Bush's vice-presidential search committee. On July 25, after reviewing Cheney's findings, Bush surprised some pundits by asking Cheney himself to join the Republican ticket. Halliburton reportedly reached agreement on July 20 to allow Cheney to retire, with a package estimated at $20 million.

Cheney campaigned vigorously against Al Gore's running mate, Joseph Lieberman, in the 2000 presidential election. Cheney, who had been typecast as being "aloof" during most of the campaign was remarkably lively during his visit to Chicago where he rode the L, danced the polka, served attendees kielbasa with stuffed cabbage and addressed a cheering crowd.

While the election was undecided, the Bush-Cheney team was not eligible for public funding to plan a transition to a new administration. So, Cheney opened a privately funded transition office in Washington. This office worked to identify candidates for all important positions in the cabinet. According to Craig Unger, Cheney advocated Donald Rumsfeld for the post of Secretary of Defense to counter the influence of Colin Powell at the State Department, and tried unsuccessfully to have Paul D. Wolfowitz named to replace George Tenet as director of the CIA.

First term

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Cheney remained physically apart from Bush for security reasons. For a period, Cheney stayed at an "undisclosed location" (Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania), out of public view.

On the morning of June 29, 2002, Cheney served as Acting President of the United States under the terms of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, while President Bush was undergoing a colonoscopy. Cheney acted as President from 11:09 UTC that day until Bush resumed control at 13:24 UTC.

War on Terrorism

Vice President Dick Cheney speaks to U.S. troops at Camp Anaconda, Iraq in 2008

Since 9/11, Cheney has helped shape President Bush's approach to the War on Terrorism. Despite contrary claims from The Pentagon, Cheney continued to assert a connection between Al-Qaeda and Iraq prior to the Iraq War in several public speeches, drawing criticism from some members of the intelligence community and leading Democrats. He also made numerous public statements regarding Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, and made repeated personal visits to CIA headquarters, where he questioned mid-level agency analysts on their WMD conclusions.

Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Cheney remained steadfast in his support of the war, stating that it would be an "enormous success story" and made many visits to the country. He often criticized war critics, calling them “opportunists” who were peddling “cynical and pernicious falsehoods” to gain political advantage while U.S. soldiers died in Iraq. In response, Senator John Kerry asserted, “It is hard to name a government official with less credibility on Iraq [than Cheney]."

Second term

See also: United States presidential election, 2004

President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus (right) meets with Vice President Cheney in Vilnius, May 2006

George W. Bush and Cheney were re-elected in the 2004 presidential election, running against John Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards. During the election, the pregnancy of his daughter Mary and her sexual orientation as a lesbian became a source of public attention for Cheney in light of the same-sex marriage debate.

Cheney's former chief legal counsel, David Addington, is currently his chief of staff. John P. Hannah serves as his national security adviser. Until his resignation in 2005, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr. served in both roles.

On the morning of July 21, 2007, Cheney once again served as Acting President for about two and a half hours. President Bush transferred the power of the presidency prior to undergoing a medical procedure, requiring sedation, and later resumed his powers and duties that same day.

Since 2001, when asked if he is interested in the Republican presidential nomination, Cheney has said he wishes to retire to private life after his term as Vice President expires.

Disclosure of documents

Cheney (far right) with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush

Cheney was a prominent member of the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG), commonly known as the Energy task force, which comprised energy industry representatives, including several Enron executives. After the Enron scandal, critics accused the Bush administration of improper political and business ties. In July 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Commerce must disclose NEPDG documents, containing references to companies that had made agreements with Saddam Hussein to develop Iraq's oil.

Since 2003, the vice president's staff have opted not to file required reports with the National Archives and Records Administration office charged with assuring that the executive branch protects classified information, nor has it allowed inspection of its record keeping. Cheney refused to release the documents, citing his executive privilege to deny congressional information requests. Such media outlets as Time Magazine and CBS News sarcastically questioned whether Cheney had created a "fourth branch of government" that was not subject to any laws.A group of historians and open-government advocates filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asking the court to declare that Cheney's vice-presidential records are covered by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and cannot be destroyed, taken or withheld from the public without proper review.

CIA leak scandal

Handwritten note above Joe Wilson's editorial by Vice President Dick Cheney referring to the covert agent before the leak took place.

Main article: CIA leak scandal

See also: CIA leak grand jury investigation and United States v. Libby

On October 18, 2005, The Washington Post reported that the vice president's office was central to the investigation of the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal, for Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was one of the figures under investigation. Following an indictment, Libby resigned his positions as Cheney's chief of staff and assistant on national security affairs.

On September 8, 2006, Richard Armitage, former Deputy Secretary of State, publicly announced that he was the source of the revelation of Plame's status. Armitage said he was not a part of a conspiracy to reveal Plame's identity and did not know whether one existed.

February 2006, The National Journal reported that Libby had stated before a grand jury that his superiors, including Vice President Cheney, had authorized him to disclose classified information to the press regarding Iraq's weapons intelligence.

On March 6, 2007, Libby was convicted on four felony counts for obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements to federal investigators.

Hunting incident

Main article: Dick Cheney hunting incident

On February 11, 2006, Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Texas attorney, in the face, neck, and upper torso with birdshot pellets when he turned to shoot a quail while hunting on a southern Texas ranch.

Whittington suffered a mild heart attack, and atrial fibrillation due to a pellet that embedded in the outer layers of his heart. The Kenedy County Sheriff's office cleared Cheney of any criminal wrongdoing in the matter, and in an interview with Fox News, Cheney accepted full responsibility for the incident. Whittington was discharged from the hospital on February 17, 2006. Later, Whittington apologized to the vice-president for the trouble the event had caused him and his family. Cheney reiterated that it was an honest accident.

Assassination attempt

Cheney speaks to the press flanked by fellow Republicans Mitch McConnell (left) and Trent Lott, April 2007

Main article: 2007 Bagram Air Base bombing

On February 27, 2007, at about 10 a.m., a suicide bomber killed 23 people and wounded 20 more outside Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a visit by Cheney. Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack and said Cheney was its intended target. The Taliban claimed that Osama Bin Laden supervised the operation. The bomb went off outside the front gate, however, while Cheney was inside the base and half a mile away. He reported hearing the blast, saying "I heard a loud boom...The Secret Service came in and told me there had been an attack on the main gate." The purpose of Cheney's visit to the region had been to press Pakistan for a united front against the Taliban.

Policy formulation

Pope Benedict XVI, Vice President Dick Cheney and Mrs. Lynne Cheney at a farewell ceremony for the Pope at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Both supporters and detractors of Cheney regard him as a shrewd and knowledgeable politician who knows the functions and intricacies of the federal government. A sign of Cheney's active policy-making role was House Speaker Dennis Hastert's provision of an office near the House floor for Cheney in addition to his office in the West Wing, his ceremonial office in the Old Executive Office Building, and his Senate offices (one in the Dirksen Senate Office Building and another off the floor of the Senate).

Cheney has actively promoted an expansion of the powers of the presidency, saying that the Bush administration’s challenges to the laws which Congress passed after Vietnam and Watergate to contain and oversee the executive branch—the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Presidential Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act and the War Powers Resolution—are, in Cheney's words, “a restoration, if you will, of the power and authority of the president.”

Vice President Cheney escorts former first lady Nancy Reagan at the commissioning ceremony of the USS Ronald Reagan, 2003

In June 2007, the Washington Post summarized Cheney’s vice presidency in a Pulitzer Prize-winning four-part series, based in part on interviews with former administration officials. The articles characterized Cheney not as a “shadow” president, but as someone who usually has the last words of counsel to the president on policies, which in many cases would reshape the powers of the presidency. When former vice president Dan Quayle suggested to Cheney that the office was largely ceremonial, Cheney reportedly replied, “I have a different understanding with the president.” The articles described Cheney as having a secretive approach to the tools of government, indicated by the use of his own security classification and three man-sized safes in his offices.

The articles described Cheney’s influence on decisions pertaining to detention of suspected terrorists and the legal limits that apply to their questioning, especially what constitutes torture. They characterized Cheney as having the strongest influence within the administration in shaping budget and tax policy in a manner that assures “conservative orthodoxy.” They also highlighted Cheney’s behind-the-scenes influence on the administration’s environmental policy to ease pollution controls for power plants, facilitate the disposal of nuclear waste, open access to federal timber resources, and avoid federal constraints on greenhouse gas emissions, among other issues. The articles characterized his approach to policy formulation as favoring business over the environment.

In June 2008, Cheney allegedly attempted to block efforts by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to strike a controversial US compromise deal with North Korea over the communist state's nuclear program.

In July, 2008, a former Environmental Protection Agency official stated publicly that Cheney's office had pushed significantly for large-scale deletions from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on the health effects of global warming "fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases." In October, when the report appeared with six pages cut from the testimony, The White House claimed that the changes were made due to concerns regarding the accuracy of the science. However, according to the former senior adviser on climate change to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, Cheney's office was directly responsible for nearly half of the original testimony being deleted.

Health problems

Cheney's long histories of cardiovascular disease and periodic need for urgent health care have raised questions of whether he is medically fit to serve in public office. Formerly a heavy smoker, Cheney sustained the first of four heart attacks in 1978, at age 37. Subsequent attacks in 1984, 1988, and 2000 have resulted in moderate contractile dysfunction of his left ventricle. He underwent four-vessel coronary artery bypass grafting in 1988, coronary artery stenting in November 1994, and urgent coronary balloon angioplasty in December 1994.

As vice president, Cheney is cared for by the White House Medical Group (WHMG). Staff from the WHMG accompany the president and the vice president while either is traveling, and make advance contact with local emergency medical services to ensure that urgent care is available immediately should it be necessary. He has undergone a number of operations during his tenure.

In 2001, an examination of Cheney with a Holter monitor revealed the presence of brief episodes of (asymptomatic) ectopy. An electrophysiologic study was performed, at which Cheney was found to have an unsteady and potentially fatal heartbeat. An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) was therefore implanted in his left upper anterior chest.

On September 24, 2005, Cheney underwent a six hour endo-vascular procedure to repair popliteal artery aneurysms bilaterally, a catheter treatment technique used in the artery behind each knee. The condition was discovered at a regular physical in July, and was not life-threatening. Cheney was taken to hospital for tests after experiencing shortness of breath five months later. In late April, 2006, an ultrasound revealed that the clot was smaller.

On March 5, 2007, Cheney was treated for deep-vein thrombosis in his left leg at George Washington University Hospital after experiencing pain in his left calf. Doctors prescribed blood-thinning medication and allowed him to return to work.

CBS News reported that during the morning of November 26, 2007, Cheney was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and underwent treatment that afternoon.

On July 12, 2008 Cheney underwent a cardiological exam, and doctors reported that his heartbeat was normal for a 67-year-old man with a history of heart problems. As part of his annual checkup, he was administered an electrocardiogram and radiological imaging of the stents placed in the arteries behind his knees in 2005. Doctors said that Cheney had not experienced any recurrence of atrial fibrillation and that his special pacemaker had neither detected nor treated any arrhythmia. However, on October 15, 2008, Cheney returned to the hospital briefly to treat a minor irregularity.

Public perception

In the beginning of the Bush administration, Cheney's public opinion polls were more favorable than unfavorable. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, both Bush's and Cheney's approval ratings rose, with Cheney reaching 63 percent and the president with 90 percent. The polling numbers for both men have steadily declined since that period, however. Cheney's Gallup poll figures are consistent with those from other polls:

• April, 2001—63% approval, 21% disapproval
• January, 2002—68% approval, 18% disapproval
• January, 2004—56% approval, 36% disapproval
• January, 2005—50% approval, 40% disapproval
• January, 2006—41% approval, 46% disapproval
• July, 2007—30% approval, 60% disapproval

Cheney has often created controversy, mostly from his role in shaping the Bush administration's policies on Iraq and the war on terrorism. In one instance, the vice president was recorded as apparently supporting waterboarding, widely regarded as a form of torture, as an interrogation technique for questioning suspected terrorists. The following day, the White House denied that Cheney was referring to waterboarding or torture.

In April 2007 Cheney was awarded an honorary doctorate of public service from Brigham Young University, where he delivered the commencement address. His selection as graduate commencement speaker was controversial. The college board of trustees issued a statement explaining that the invitation should be viewed "as one extended to someone holding the high office of vice president of the United States rather than to a partisan political figure." BYU permitted a protest to occur so long as it did not "make personal attacks against Cheney, attack (the) BYU administration, the church or the First Presidency."

On April 24, 2007, Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio presented articles of impeachment against Cheney, as House Resolution 333. It was not initially cosponsored, and was immediately referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where no action was taken. The resolution has acquired 24 Democratic cosponsors since its introduction, six of whom are members of the House Judiciary Committee. After six months without a debate or vote, Kucinich re-introduced identical content as a new resolution, House Resolution 799, on November 6, 2007. This was also referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Further reading

Works by

• Professional Military Education: An Asset for Peace and Progress : A Report of the Crisis Study Group on Professional Military Education (Csis Report) 1997. ISBN 0-89206-297-5
• Kings of the Hill: How Nine Powerful Men Changed the Course of American History 1996. ISBN 0-8264-0230-5

Works about

• Andrews, Elaine. Dick Cheney: A Life Of Public Service. Millbrook Press, 2001. ISBN 0-7613-2306-6
• Gellman, Barton. Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. Penguin Press, 2008. ISBN 9781594201868
• Mann, James. Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet. Viking, 2004. ISBN 0-670-03299-9
• Nichols, John. Dick: The Man Who is President. New Press, 2004. ISBN 1-56584-840-3

External links

• Official homepage at whitehouse.gov
• United States Congress. "Dick Cheney (id: C000344)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• US Department of State
• The New York Times — Dick Cheney archives
• Vice Presidential Debate, October 5, 2004: Transcript text, Audio and Video (RealPlayer or MPG format)

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