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JANUARY 30,
1941:
Richard B. Cheney is born in Lincoln, Nebraska.
1950's:
Cheney attends high school in Casper, Wyoming. He becomes football captain,
top 10 student and meets his future wife, homecoming Queen, Lynne Vincent.
1959
Cheney, a Yale student, turns 18 and becomes eligible for the draft.
Jacob Plotkin
was Cheney's Yale roommate.
"It's hard to flunk out
of Yale. It's something that one really
has to put effort into. Yale at that
time tried to make sure everybody who
entered graduated.
Where others might spend some time on the weekend studying, Dick was
either talking, drinking or playing cards with his football buddies." |
1960
JUNE 14:Cheney
drops out of Yale, returns to Wyoming and takes a
job with the local power company.
1962
FEBRUARY: Cheney was classified as 1-A, available for military service.
NOVEMBER 19: Cheney is arrested for
drunk driving. (see the police
court docket on the Smoking Gun website  )
1963
MARCH 20: Cheney applies for his first student draft deferment.
JULY 23: Cheney applies for his second
draft deferment after enrolling at the University
of Wyoming.
1964
OCTOBER 14: Cheney applies for his third student draft deferment. By now the
Vietnam war has escalated following the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.
Cheney marries his high school sweetheart, Lynne.
1965
NOVEMBER 1: Cheney gets his fourth draft deferment.
Cheney graduates and is once more listed as 1-A, ready for military service.
1966
JANUARY 19: When his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant, Cheney applies for 3-A
status, the ''hardship'' exemption, which excludes men with children or dependent
parents. It is granted.
1967
JANUARY: Cheney turns 26 and is no longer eligible for the draft.
Journalist
Jim Mann had covered Dick Cheney's career
for 30 years and wrote Rise of the
Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet.
"I found memos from
Cheney about what salt shakers should be
used at White House dinners. Whether Betty
Ford should have a headrest on the helicopter
or not. Who gets White House Christmas
cards and who doesn't.
Cheney is a guy who started at the
bottom. He knows how the White House
works, right down to the grass roots level. And he uses that to great
effect as he raises higher and higher in government." |
1968
Cheney wins a congressional scholarship
with Wyoming Republican congressman William Steiger
and goes to Washington. Cheney travels to campuses
to report on scenes of violent student unrest.
1969
Cheney goes to work for Donald Rumsfeld as his special assistant at the Office
of Economic Opportunity.
1974
AUGUST: Cheney joins Gerald Ford’s presidential transition team when
President Nixon resigns.
1975
NOVEMBER: Cheney becomes Assistant to President Ford and Chief of Staff.
1978
JUNE 18: Cheney suffers his first heart attack.
Cheney is elected as a congressman
from Wyoming.
1981
Cheney becomes Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981, a position
he holds until 1987.
1986
Cheney votes against a House resolution calling for the release of Nelson Mandela
and the recognition of the ANC.
1988
Cheney is elected House minority whip.
Cheney undergoes quadruple by-pass
surgery to clear clogged arteries. |
