== Political Career ==
Cheney assumed his first political post as an assistant to [[Wisconsin ]] Governor Warren P. Knowles in the early 1960s, at the age of 28 when he became an intern near the beginning of the [[Nixon]] Administration. He quickly came to the attention of [[Donald Rumsfeld]], then directing the Office of Economic Opportunity, and was promoted to a paid position in 1971. When [[Watergate]] forced Nixon's resignation in 1973, Cheney became vice president of an investment firm for a year, but Rumsfeld convinced [[Gerald Ford]] upon the latter's accession to the presidency that Cheney was indispensable, and he was recalled to public service. Eventually Cheney replaced Rumsfeld as [[Chief of Staff]] to Ford as Rumsfeld was promoted to [[Secretary of Defense]]. In 1978-88, Cheney served in Congress from Wyoming, becoming the Republican Whip (the #2 job).
Cheney served as Secretary of Defense for President [[George H. W. Bush]] in the late 1980s. In the 1990s Cheney worked for the big oil-supply company Halliburton, becoming CEO in 1995. After he left the company with a retirement package of $33 million (which went into a blind trust which Cheney does not control), leftist critics alleged that he twisted American foreign policy for the benefit of Halliburton.