Dick Cheney Bio

Richard Cheney

vice president of the United States

Born: Jan. 30, 1941

Birthplace: Lincoln, Neb.

President George W. Bush turned to a seasoned Washington insider to be his second in command. The vice president has served under presidents Nixon, Ford, George H.W. Bush, and now George W. Bush.

After earning a BA and MA from the University of Wyoming, Cheney worked in the office of Wisconsin Governor Warren Knowles. Two years later, he won an American Political Science Association congressional fellowship.

Cheney went to Washington in 1969 to serve as special assistant to Donald Rumsfeld (President George W. Bush's secretary of defense) in the Office of Economic Opportunity in the Nixon administration. In 1974, Rumsfeld led President Ford's transition team, and he brought his protйgй to the executive office. When Rumsfeld was named secretary of defense in 1975, Cheney was appointed 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