II.

Government Service

Cheney entered government service in 1969, initially serving in a variety of posts in the administration of Richard Nixon. He served at the Cost of Living Council and the Office of Economic Opportunity. He also worked as a staff assistant in the Nixon White House. During the administration of Gerald Ford, Cheney served on the team that helped Ford make the transition from vice president to president after Nixon resigned in 1974. Cheney also served as deputy assistant to the president. In November 1975 he was named White House chief of staff.

Cheney returned to Wyoming in 1977 and was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1978. In 1988 he was elected House minority whip, and in this role he worked to get Republican representatives to vote the party line on key issues. In 1989 President George H. W. Bush named him secretary of defense. During his tenure, Cheney helped oversee the U.S. military campaign in Panama as well as Operation Desert Storm, the U.S.-led multinational campaign that liberated Iraqi-occupied Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War (1991). In 1991 President Bush awarded Cheney the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work during the war.