Dick Cheney Biography Quotes 45 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Richard Bruce Cheney was born on January 30, 1941, in Lincoln, Nebraska, and grew up in Casper, Wyoming. The West shaped his sensibility and political outlook, grounding him in the culture of energy production and ranching that would remain central to his public persona. After high school he enrolled at Yale University but left before completing a degree. He returned to the Mountain West and earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in political science from the University of Wyoming. He later pursued doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin without completing the program, and soon gravitated to Washington, D.C., where the federal government was expanding and a new generation of political staff was emerging.

Entry into Government and the Ford White House
Cheney's Washington career accelerated through his association with Donald Rumsfeld, a mentor who helped him move from Congress to the executive branch during the Nixon and Ford years. After early work on Capitol Hill, Cheney joined Rumsfeld at the Office of Economic Opportunity and later at the Cost of Living Council, earning a reputation as a capable organizer and strategist. When Gerald Ford assumed the presidency in 1974, Cheney rose quickly, serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and, beginning in 1975, as White House Chief of Staff after Rumsfeld moved to the Pentagon. In a period marked by economic turbulence and post-Watergate reforms, Cheney became a staunch advocate for maintaining presidential authority within the constitutional system, a theme that would pervade his later career.

Congressional Career
After Ford's defeat in 1976, Cheney returned to Wyoming and won election to the state's at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, taking office in 1979. Over a decade in Congress, he cultivated expertise in national security and intelligence oversight. During the Iran-Contra investigations in the late 1980s, he authored the House minority report, arguing that the presidency required latitude in foreign affairs and that oversight should not cripple executive action. The report crystallized his long-held views on separation of powers and the need for a strong commander-in-chief. His colleagues recognized his discipline and poise, and he became a prominent Republican voice on defense and budget matters.

Secretary of Defense
In 1989, President George H. W. Bush tapped Cheney to serve as Secretary of Defense after a previous nominee failed to win Senate confirmation. Cheney, working closely with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell and CENTCOM commander General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, oversaw the U.S. invasion of Panama and, more consequentially, the Gulf War. Operation Desert Storm in early 1991 expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait with a swift coalition campaign that showcased air power, joint operations, and a carefully defined objective. As the Cold War ended, Cheney managed a drawdown of forces and base closures while encouraging modernization. His Pentagon also oversaw the drafting of a 1992 Defense Planning Guidance led by policy officials such as Paul Wolfowitz and Zalmay Khalilzad, which envisioned U.S. preeminence in a unipolar world. The mix of prudence in war aims and assertiveness in strategy would define how many viewed Cheney's defense stewardship.

Private Sector Leadership
After leaving the Pentagon in 1993, Cheney moved to the private sector, becoming chief executive at Halliburton in 1995. He expanded the company's global footprint in energy services, including defense logistics through its subsidiary KBR. His tenure coincided with rising U.S. engagement in the Balkans and the Middle East, and Halliburton's federal contracts drew attention. When he later returned to government, deferred compensation and stock options placed in trust generated scrutiny and recurring questions about conflicts of interest, even as he emphasized compliance with ethics rules.

Vice President of the United States
In 2000, Cheney initially led the search for a vice-presidential candidate for Texas Governor George W. Bush, and then accepted the role himself. After the contested election, he became vice president on January 20, 2001. From the outset he played an unusually influential role, chairing an energy task force that produced the administration's energy plan and resisting broad disclosure of internal deliberations, a stance ultimately at issue in the Supreme Court case Cheney v. United States District Court in 2004.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, marked a turning point. While President Bush was away from Washington, Cheney coordinated from the White House bunker with national security principals including National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet. In the months and years that followed, he became a leading architect of the administration's War on Terror. He strongly backed the Afghanistan campaign, the creation of detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, and controversial interrogation policies shaped in part by legal opinions from officials such as John Yoo and Jay Bybee. Advocating a robust conception of executive power, he and close advisers like David Addington argued that the commander-in-chief required broad latitude to confront non-state threats.

Cheney also championed intensified surveillance to detect terrorist plots. A secret National Security Agency program authorized warrantless monitoring of certain communications became a flashpoint. In 2004 a dramatic confrontation took place at the hospital bedside of Attorney General John Ashcroft, when Acting Attorney General James Comey and FBI Director Robert Mueller objected to aspects of the program's legal basis. After internal debate, President Bush reauthorized surveillance with modifications. The episode highlighted internal divisions over how far the executive branch could go in wartime.

Iraq dominated Cheney's vice presidency. He pressed the case that Saddam Hussein's regime posed an intolerable threat and, alongside Rumsfeld and officials such as Paul Wolfowitz, urged removing it. Secretary of State Colin Powell advocated coalition-building and presented intelligence assessments at the United Nations; the discovery that Iraq lacked stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction deeply damaged the administration's credibility. Critics accused Cheney of exerting pressure on the intelligence community, including through visits to CIA headquarters, and of favoring analysis that supported invasion. Supporters argued he was reacting to the overriding imperative after 9/11 to prevent catastrophic attacks.

Controversies multiplied. Cheney's office was embroiled in the leak investigation surrounding CIA officer Valerie Plame, which led to the 2007 conviction of his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for perjury and obstruction; President Bush commuted Libby's sentence, and years later Libby received a pardon. In 2006, during a quail hunt in Texas, Cheney accidentally shot attorney Harry Whittington, an event that drew intense media scrutiny and personal contrition from the vice president. Through it all, Cheney remained steadfast in defending the administration's choices as necessary to protect the country.

By the second Bush term, changes at the Pentagon and State Department, including Rumsfeld's 2006 resignation and Condoleezza Rice's diplomacy-first agenda, signaled a recalibration of policy and a modest ebb in Cheney's influence. Nonetheless, he continued to shape debates on interrogation, surveillance, and Iran, and he remained one of President Bush's most consequential advisers until leaving office in 2009.

Personal Life and Health
Cheney married Lynne Vincent in 1964. Lynne Cheney became a prominent author and public intellectual, later chairing the National Endowment for the Humanities. They raised two daughters: Elizabeth (Liz) Cheney, who pursued a career in law, foreign policy, and ultimately Congress, and Mary Cheney, who worked in public affairs and became an important voice in discussions about LGBTQ rights within conservative circles. Cheney's family often stood beside him during milestones and controversies alike, and Liz worked closely with him on later writing projects.

Cheney's long struggle with heart disease shaped public perceptions of his stoicism. He suffered multiple heart attacks, underwent bypass surgery and procedures to implant devices to stabilize heart rhythm, and in 2012 received a heart transplant. His health challenges, which he addressed candidly in interviews and writings, became part of his broader narrative of resilience.

Later Years and Writings
After leaving office, Cheney remained a force in national security debates. He defended the intelligence and detention programs of the Bush years and criticized efforts he believed weakened U.S. deterrence. He published a memoir, "In My Time", with Liz Cheney in 2011, and they later co-authored "Exceptional", arguing for American leadership in a dangerous world. As Liz Cheney rose to Republican leadership and later broke with party orthodoxy over the events surrounding the 2020 election, he publicly supported her, appearing in Wyoming to endorse her arguments about constitutional fidelity and the responsibilities of elected officials.

Legacy
Dick Cheney's career traversed the arc of modern American power from the Cold War's end through the post-9/11 era. Admirers see a disciplined strategist who made hard choices to keep the country safe and who articulated a clear, if controversial, theory of executive authority. Critics fault his role in the Iraq War, the embrace of coercive interrogation, and resistance to transparency, arguing that these choices carried heavy costs for U.S. credibility and law. Few dispute, however, that he became one of the most influential vice presidents in American history. His partnerships with figures like George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, David Addington, and Scooter Libby, and his long marriage to Lynne Cheney, framed a public life defined by loyalty, forceful argument, and a conviction that the United States must project strength to secure peace.

Our collection contains 45 quotes who is written by Dick, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Leadership - Learning - Dark Humor - Freedom.

Other people realated to Dick: Gerald R. Ford (President), Al Gore (Vice President), Robert Orben (Entertainer), Antonin Scalia (Judge), George H. W. Bush (President), Lee H. Hamilton (Politician), Tucker Carlson (Journalist), Andrew Card (Politician), Craig L. Thomas (Politician), Ken Mehlman (Politician)

• Dick Cheney hunting accident: In 2006 he accidentally shot Harry Whittington during a quail hunt in Texas; Whittington survived.
• Dick Cheney young: Born in Nebraska and raised in Wyoming; entered politics after attending Yale and graduating from the University of Wyoming.
• What is Dick Cheney known for: Serving as U.S. Vice President (2001–2009) and influencing post-9/11 national security policy; previously Secretary of Defense.
• Dick Cheney movie: He is the subject of the 2018 film "Vice" (played by Christian Bale).
• What is Dick Cheney net worth? Estimates vary; many sources place it in the tens of millions of dollars.
• How old was Dick Cheney? He became 84 years old

• Wikipedia: Dick Cheney