Almost four decades before he served as vice president with George W. Bush, a fresh-faced congressional intern named Dick Cheney journeyed to Washington, D.C, looking for a mentor that would catalyze his political aspirations.
He found one in Donald Rumsfeld, sparking a decades-long friendship that would carry the the pair to the highest levels of government.
Cheney died Monday, November 3 at age 84 from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family announced in a statement. “History will remember him as among the finest public servants of his generation—a patriot who brought integrity, high intelligence, and seriousness of purpose to every position he held,” his former running mate Bush said in a statement.
Those qualities are at least partly attributed to Rumsfeld, who took Cheney under his wing during the late 1960s and molded the upstart into a valuable confidante.
Rumsfield had a disastrous interview with Cheney, but later hired him
After pursuing, but not completing, a doctorate degree at the University of Wisconsin, Cheney, then in his late 20s, received a congressional fellowship to work on Capitol Hill in 1968, according to the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.
While there, Cheney applied to work in the office of Rumsfeld, a member of the House of Representatives for Illinois’ 13th district. Cheney told the Miller Center their interview lasted roughly 30 minutes and was a disaster.
“The sparks just flew when we met. I mean, I didn’t like him; he didn’t like me,” Cheney explained. “He thought I was too academically oriented, I couldn’t do anything for him, I didn’t understand anything about the needs of a Congressman. I thought he was an arrogant SOB, and so I walked out and went to work for [Wisconsin Republican] Bill Steiger.”
Within months, however, President Richard Nixon assigned Rumsfeld to lead the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO)—and Cheney saw a personal opportunity. In the spring of 1969, he composed a 12-page memorandum to Rumsfeld on how he should conduct himself at hearings in his new post. Steiger, who was on the transition team, liked it and gave the memo to Rumsfeld.
After Cheney attended a meeting of OEO advisors, a secretary instructed him to go to Rumsfeld’s office—where he was hired this time. “I walked in and he was sitting there at his desk. He never even looked up. He just pointed and said, ‘You, you’re congressional relations. Now get the hell out of here,’” Cheney said.
Cheney and Rumsfeld worked together under multiple administrations
Despite Rumsfeld’s initial curtness, the pair developed a close friendship—with Cheney becoming his chief lieutenant.
With Nixon’s resignation following the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford assumed the presidency in 1974 and appointed Rumsfeld as White House chief of staff. A year later, Cheney took over his mentor’s role following a major reorganization of Ford’s staff now known as the “Halloween Massacre.”
At age 34, Cheney was the youngest chief of staff in U.S. history. It was in this role that his potential as a politician truly emerged. “He made the system run,” Ford’s national security adviser Brent Scowcroft said, according to the BBC. “Everybody had access to the president, but it was smooth, orderly. He didn’t try to be a deputy president.”
Cheney’s people skills helped him land the role of secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush in 1989. In this post, he oversaw Operation Desert Storm, the military campaign to counter Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait under Saddam Hussein.
Then in 2000, Cheney was elected vice president alongside George W. Bush. With Rumsfield embarking a second tenure as secretary of defense under Bush, he and Cheney worked closely once again through pivotal moments including the September 11 terror attacks and following U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Cheney stood by Rumsfeld’s side amid pressure to resign
As the Iraq War dragged on, criticism mounted against Rumsfeld and the Bush administration. After notable Republican midterm election losses in 2006, Bush announced Rumsfeld had resigned from his position as secretary of defense.
Even with mounting pressure within his party leading up to the split, Cheney stuck by Rumsfeld. In his 2007 book, Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President, author Stephen Hayes writes that Cheney told staff members he was “absolutely not” in agreement with Bush’s switch to Robert Gates as defense secretary. The VP doubled down in an interview with Fox News reporter Bret Baier, saying he “thought that in terms of the way forward, Don was the right guy to continue to lead the Department of Defense.”
Cheney finished out his term in 2009 and hasn’t served in public office since. His rise to vice president was satirized in the 2018 movie Vice, starring Christian Bale as Cheney and Amy Adams as his wife, Lynne Cheney.
Rumsfeld died in 2021, and the alliance with Cheney is considered a crucial part of both of their legacies.
Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
