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Dick Cheney was born on January 30th in 1941 as "Richard Bruce Dick Cheney", and served the United States in the Capacity of Vice President for the George W. Bush administration on both terms. During this period he has taken on the role of Acting President of the US, on two occasions while George W. Bush was indisposed, due to medical treatments he was undergoing at the time.
Born in Lincoln, Nevada, Cheney enrolled at Yale University but dropped out. Later he enrolled and graduated from the University of Wyoming. He attempted to further educate himself at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but once again dropped out.
In 1962 Cheney was arrested, tried and convicted for drunk driving, and the same happened again one year later.
Cheney grew up in Wyoming where he started his career in politics working for William A. Steiger, who served as a man of congress. Gradually Cheney worked his way up into the white house during the terms of President Nixon and President Ford. Cheney served under President Ford as the Chief of staff in the White House. Cheney won the election and entered the House of Representatives in 1978 and would hold this position for the duration of 5 terms, where he took on the role of House Minority Whip. After this Cheney was chosen by the Bush administration as the Secretary of Defense, an occupation he maintained for most of the term. During his time as Secretary of Defense he supervised Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
For the period that followed, when the Clinton administration was voted in, Cheney took up the position of chairman and CEO of the Halliburton Company, a function he would perform for the duration of 5 years.
While still working in the capacity of CEO of Halliburton in the first quarter of 2000, Cheney led the search committee after which he was asked by George W. Bush to participate himself. After settling with Halliburton about early retirement in July of 2000, Cheney left the company approximately $20 million richer.
Before the start of the election Cheney left Dallas and headed back to Wyoming for legal reasons, in order to enable him to take on the role of Vice President if elected without breaking the twelfth amendment of the US Constitution.
Cheney went up against Joseph Lieberman in the 2000 election and won. During this period he also suggested Donald Rumsfeld to be the best choice for the position of Secretary of Defense, in order to diminish the political influence of Colin Powel. He also attempted to get Paul Wolfowitz installed as CIA director instead of George Tenet, but failed.
Cheney has always been regarded to have been the most powerful Vice President in American history, which has gained the respect of both parties, and he is viewed as a politician who knows his way around the political battlefield.
During his terms as Vice President, Cheney always advocated the increase of presidential powers, stating that many controversial acts that have passed under the administration of George W. Bush were nothing more than a re-instatement to restore the former powers that should go with the position of being the United States President.
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