Biography | Dick Cheney — The Capitol Oath That Made Him the Forty-Sixth Vice President

On January 20, 2001, Dick Cheney took the oath as the forty-sixth vice president of the United States on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist administered the oath during the fifty-fourth presidential inauguration, immediately before George W. Bush became president.

The official photograph shows Cheney with his wife Lynne and daughter Mary as the oath is delivered in the open-air ceremony.

It captures a constitutional transfer of power after one of the closest and most contested presidential elections in American history.

Cheney arrived with an unusually deep résumé for a new vice president: White House chief of staff, six-term congressman from Wyoming, secretary of defense, and private-sector chief executive.

Bush had first asked him to lead the search for a running mate before choosing Cheney himself.

That experience helped make the new vice president more than a ceremonial deputy.

Inside the administration, Cheney became a central participant in national-security policy, executive-branch organization, and the response to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Supporters viewed his command of government as a source of continuity and discipline, while critics saw an expansion of vice-presidential power with too little public accountability.

His advocacy for the 2003 invasion of Iraq became the most contested part of that legacy.

The Capitol oath did not settle those later arguments, but it opened the office from which Cheney would exert influence on them.

The ceremony is therefore a useful geographic beginning for understanding both the reach of his vice presidency and the disputes it generated.

The pin marks the Capitol’s West Front as the documented public venue, not the temporary platform, a restricted interior, or any security route.

That distinction anchors the event accurately while avoiding operational details about a protected government complex.

Photo: George W. Bush Presidential Library and National Archives and Records Administration, public domain; photographed January 20, 2001.