Dick Cheney

**Richard Bruce** "**Dick**" **Cheney** (January 30, 1941 – November 3, 2025) was an American politician and businessman. He was the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. As a Republican, he ran in the 2000 United States presidential election with George W. Bush, and successfully won re-election in the 2004 United States presidential election. Before he became vice president, he was the Secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993, during George H. W. Bush's presidency. He was also a member of the House of Representatives from 1979 to 1989, and was White House Chief of Staff from 1975 to 1977.

## Early life
Cheney was born at Bryan Medical Center East Campus in Lincoln, Nebraska to Richard Cheney and Marjorie Cheney. Cheney grew up in Casper, Wyoming.
## Political career prior to 2001
Dick Cheney was the former representative for Wyoming's At-large congressional district. He served in the George H. W. Bush administration from 1989 to 1993 as a cabinet member.

## Business career
He was also in charge of a large defense company called Halliburton when he was out of office during the Clinton presidency.

## Vice presidency (2001–2009)
As Vice President, Cheney was the head of the Senate and cast six tie-breaking votes and he was replaced by Joe Biden as vice president on January 20, 2009.

Cheney has been called the most powerful vice president in American history. *USA Today* said that Cheney was a "chief architect of the war in Iraq". He was seen as giving more powers to the vice presidency. He was said to sometimes have had more power than President Bush.

## Personal life
Cheney lived in Wyoming. He was an active hunter. In 2006, he shot a friend by mistake while hunting. He did not run for president in 2008. He has criticized President Barack Obama. His wife Lynne Cheney is a distant cousin of President Barack Obama and he is an 8th cousin of President Barack Obama. He is a 9th cousin, once removed of George W. Bush. Cheney is distantly related to Harry S. Truman and Robert Duvall by the Duvall family. He was distantly related to American Express founder Benjamin Pierce Cheney.

Cheney was a member of the United Methodist Church and was the first Methodist vice president to serve under a Methodist president. His brother, Bob, is a former civil servant at the Bureau of Land Management.

On March 24, 2012, Cheney underwent a seven-hour heart transplant process. Cheney has had several heart attacks.

### 2024 elections
In 2024, Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

### Legacy
Cheney has been called an "architect of the Iraq War." 

Cheney was a supporter of waterboarding, a form of torture. 

He opposed sanctions related to South African apartheid. In 1983, Cheney joined 337 of his fellow members of the House of the 98th Congress to pass H.R. 3706, which established Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a federal holiday. 

### Death
Cheney died on the night of November 3, 2025 at his home in McLean, Virginia from problems caused by pneumonia and heart disease, at the age of 84.

## Family
Dick and Lynne Cheney have 2 daughters, Elizabeth and Mary. Mary Cheney is openly lesbian. Elizabeth Cheney is the former Congresswoman at-large from Wyoming in the United States House of Representatives.

## References
## Other websites
* US Department of State from the Internet Archive
* * The New York Times*&nbsp;— Dick Cheney archives
* Vice Presidential Debate, October 5, 2004: Transcript text, Audio and Video (RealPlayer or MPG format)