WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (AFP) - A hard-nosed veteran of decades of Washington political infighting, Vice President Dick Cheney is seen as a principal architect of the war in Iraq and a foreign policy mentor to President George W. Bush.
"Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually," Cheney said mockingly of himself in a rare interview with American newspapers in January.
The 63-year-old Cheney may have adopted a low profile during the early years of the Bush administration, but the vice president has been extremely active on the campaign trail in recent months, criss-crossing the country to rally the Republican faithful.
Cheney has doled out the harshest attacks on Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry, even going so far as to suggest that the United States risked suffering another terrorist attack like September 11, 2001 if voters do not reelect Bush on November 2.
"If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again," he said.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on January 30, 1941, Richard B. Cheney grew up in Caspar, Wyoming. He earned degrees from the University of Wyoming and avoided the draft in the 1960s by receiving a series of deferments on various grounds.
Cheney worked in the Republican administrations of presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford before being elected to the House of Representatives from Wyoming in 1977.
Reelected to the House five times, he served as defense secretary in the cabinet of the first president Bush, George H.W. Bush, during which time a US-led coalition drove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait and the United States invaded Panama.
Cheney served as chief executive officer of oil services giant Halliburton from 1995 through 2000, when he was selected by then-Republican presidential candidate Bush to lead a vice presidential search committee.
He ended up putting himself forward for the number two slot on the Republican ticket.
Cheney is credited with tutoring Bush, a two-time governor of Texas, in foreign policy issues and is seen as fiercely loyal to the president, having no White House ambitions of his own because of poor health. He has suffered several heart attacks.
A darling of the Republican right and one of the most powerful vice presidents in history, Cheney has been a magnet for critics of the Bush administration.
Cheney's former company Halliburton has been the target of several investigations of lucrative army contracts won by the firm to provide services in Iraq.
His decision to keep secret a list of people with whom he consulted in the spring of 2001 while working on the administration's energy policy was the subject of a complaint lodged before the Supreme Court.
In June, the usually smooth vice president lost his cool and disregarded congressional decorum by firing a four-letter expletive at a Democratic senator.
A leading advocate of the war against Saddam launched in March 2003, Cheney has shrugged off the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the lack of established ties between Al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime.
He retains the full confidence of the president. "I admit it, he's not the prettiest face in the race," the president has said of Cheney. "I didn't pick him for his looks. I picked him for his judgment, his experience, his ability to get the job done."
Broad-shouldered and balding, Cheney wears eyeglasses with a fine metal frame. When he smiles one side of his mouth goes up.
Married to his high school girlfriend, Liz Cheney, since 1964, Cheney has two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary.
Mary, who serves on her father's reelection campaign, is openly gay and her sexual orientation has led to the only public disagreement between her father and the president.
Bush supports an amendment to the constitution which would state that marriage is between a man and a woman while Cheney has said he does not believe a constitutional amendment is necessary.

10/31/2004 02:37 GMT - AFP