Lore Accurate Humans: Dick Cheney

When working on “Right Answers Only” this week, I was looking through a list of famous college dropouts when one caught my eye: Dick Cheney. Cheney is regarded as having been the most powerful Vice President in the history of the United States, and the fact that he had dropped out of Yale and still found as much political success as he did stuck out to me. To find out how he came to be regarded as the most powerful VP ever, we have to go back to the beginning. 

Born in 1941 in Lincoln, Nebraska, Cheney had a largely unremarkable childhood. He wasn't particularly exceptional at anything extracurricular and was an average student at best. His family moved to Casper, Wyoming when he was a teenager, where he would meet his future wife Lynne Vincent in high school. 

He was accepted into Yale on scholarship, but was unsuccessful in his time there largely due to his drinking. He would flunk out, attempt to return after taking a year off, then flunk out again. He took up work digging holes for powerlines. It was around this time in the early 1960s when Cheney would get two DUIs within an eight month span, prompting him to reconsider his life choices and return to school at University of Wyoming. 

Around the time he was working through his third attempt at college, the draft for the Vietnam War began. Cheney received his first couple deferments as his four-year degree ended up lasting six years. 

He would marry Vincent in 1964, before earning his Bachelor's in political science in 1965. Upon graduation, he would have been eligible for the draft had he not married Lynne. In October 1965, the draft expanded to include married men without children, and nine months and two days later, Liz Cheney was born for Dick's fourth deferment. His final deferment would grant him 3-A status, a type of deferment available to men with dependents. By January of 1967, Cheney turned 26 and became ineligible to be drafted to serve in Vietnam.

He served as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger beginning in 1969, moving quickly to the staff of Donald Rumsfeld when he was the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from 1969 to 1970. Cheney held several positions around the White House following his time working with Rumsfeld, including serving as Deputy Assistant to the President during the Ford administration.

This methodical climb from position to position would result in Cheney becoming the youngest Chief of Staff in the history of the United States under Gerald Ford. When Ford lost to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election, Cheney would vacate his position.

Not staying out of the game for long, Cheney sought election to Wyoming's sole congressional seat and won in 1979, being a key voting member on many bills that passed through the house. These included voting against the creation of the U.S. Department of Education, initially voting against establishing a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and voting on a non-binding resolution calling on the South African government to release Nelson Mandela. During this time in his career, Cheney would also begin to suffer from occasional heart attacks due to a heart defect. 

After serving in Congress for ten years, Cheney was nominated by George H.W. Bush to be his Secretary of Defense. Cheney would direct Operation Just Cause and Operation Desert Storm along with leading efforts to make reductions to the budget of the Department of Defense. He would also persuade Saudi Arabia to allow for U.S. bases to be located in the nation, which had a major impact on  the Gulf War. 

He would then leave politics to serve as the CEO of the world’s second-largest oil service company, Halliburton, from 1995 to 2000 — which would become somewhat controversial in the future. Cheney would return to politics to spearhead the search for a Vice President on behalf of George W. Bush, but would ultimately become Bush's running mate. They were elected following the Supreme Court's ruling in Bush v. Gore. 

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Dick Cheney became a major advocate for the United States going to war with Iraq due to an alleged connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. To this day, no such connection appears to have existed. 

It was also around this time that the United States rebranded torture as “enhanced interrogation techniques,” something that Dick Cheney is a proponent of to this day.

Cheney was also a major member of the Energy Task Force, a group that developed national energy policy. Many of these policies were pro-oil, which is unsurprising as multiple reports came out indicating that many energy executives met with the Task Force as they were developing policy. Not only were policies pro-oil, but contracts may have been as well. 

Controversially, Halliburton — the company for which Cheney had been a CEO — secured many no-bid contracts that made them massive amounts of money following the United States getting involved in Iraq, a war which Cheney was a major proponent of. 

This made many Americans question the legitimacy of the war, as it appeared to be entirely motivated by Cheney seemingly aiming to make billions for his former employer.

In 2005, Dick Cheney was linked to the leaking of the identity of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent. This was after her husband Joseph Wilson published an op-ed in The New York Times that cast doubt on the idea that Iraq was buying uranium for Niger.

While out on a quail hunt, Cheney would “accidentally” shoot Harry Whittington, leading to wounds in the right cheek, neck and chest. Whittington would suffer a non-fatal heart attack while being treated at the hospital, and would ultimately issue a public apology for the backlash that the Cheney family had received as a result of Dick shooting him. 

Cheney has never apologized for shooting Whittington.

Ultimately, due to his role in forcing America into the invasion of Iraq along with Afghanistan, the support of the people would wane, leaving Dick Cheney with an approval rating of 13% by the end of his time in office. He chose not to run for President in 2008, allowing John McCain his shot at office. 

Into retirement, Cheney would live a peaceful life until he started suffering more heart complications than he had in the past. He was rapidly approaching death.  Cheney was in desperate need of a heart transplant but was unlikely to receive one due to his age and position on the transplant waitlist. But miraculously, a heart was sourced for Cheney and his heart was successfully replaced.

Despite setbacks early in his life, Dick Cheney slowly climbed the political ladder, amassing experience and respect with each rung he passed, ultimately resulting in him becoming the most powerful Vice President in U.S. history. And while he was also largely disliked by the time he left office, Cheney didn't care, because approval didn't dictate how he could do his job. He was going to do what he felt was best for America, regardless of what people thought of him personally, because that's the kind of man he is.