Beer ‘one of the essentials of life’ – Cheney as a studentpublished at 12:30 GMT
Richard Bruce Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on 30 January 1941.
His father worked for the US Department of Agriculture, while his mother had been a successful softball player in the 1930s.
When he was 13, his family moved to Casper, an oil town in Wyoming. In 1959, Cheney entered Yale on a scholarship, but failed to graduate.
He confessed that he fell in with “some kindred souls, young men like me who were not adjusting very well [to Yale] and shared my opinion that beer was one of the essentials of life”.
He went on to gain a Master’s degree in political science from the University of Wyoming.
In his early 20s, Cheney was twice convicted of drink driving. The incidents focused his mind on the future.
“I was headed down a bad road if I continued on that course,” he said.
In 1959, when he became eligible to be drafted for military service, Cheney obtained a string of deferments, first so that he could finish his college course and then when his new wife, Lynne became pregnant.
Cheney’s first taste of Washington came in 1968 when he worked for William Steiger, a young Republican representative from Wisconsin.
When Gerald Ford made Donald Rumsfeld his defence secretary in 1975, Cheney found himself chief of staff at the White House. He was just 34 years old.
First Lady Betty Ford chats with White House Chief Of Staff Donald Rumsfeld (left) and Cheney in the West Wing of the White House in November 1974
