An Unlikely Beginning
Cheney's father was a civil servant with the U.S. Department of the Interior. The young Cheney, however, was anything but a model student. Headstrong and rebellious in his early years, he was arrested multiple times for drunk driving, and his academic struggles at Yale University ultimately forced him to drop out. For a time, he worked as a power-line worker for an electric utility company — a far cry from the corridors of national power he would later come to dominate.
切尼父親是內政部公務員，不過年輕的切尼桀驁不馴，曾多次被控酒駕，就讀耶魯大學時更因成績欠佳被迫退學，一度當電力公司的架線工人。
A Career at the Heights of Power
Cheney served as Secretary of Defense under President George H. W. Bush, presiding over a pivotal era that encompassed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Later, under President George W. Bush, he ascended to the office of Vice President, where he led the prosecution of the War on Terror following the September 11 attacks. A forceful advocate of resolving foreign relations through robust military action, Cheney was widely criticized by his opponents as relentlessly hawkish — a man whose instinct, critics argued, always bent toward force.
切尼是老布殊年代的國防部長，經歷過蘇聯解體和柏林圍牆倒下事件；喬治布殊年代他成為副總統，在911事件後領導反恐戰爭，主張以強硬軍事手段解決對外關係，被批評為好戰成性。
Controversy Finds the Powerful
Prominence inevitably attracts scrutiny, and Cheney was no exception. In one of the more notorious episodes of his vice presidency, Cheney accidentally shot and wounded his friend, attorney Harry Whittington, during a hunting trip — having fired without noticing that someone was in his line of fire. The incident generated considerable controversy and became one of the more surreal footnotes of his time in office.
人紅自然是非多，切尼在位副總統時，一次打獵時切尼在沒有注意前方有人時開槍，結果令律師好友Harry Whittington受傷，當年惹起不少爭議。
A Life Worthy of the Screen
The American presidency has at times been mocked as a largely ceremonial role — but Cheney redefined what a vice president could be, wielding power that many considered to rival or exceed that of the president himself. His life was significant enough to be adapted into a major Hollywood film: the 2018 biographical drama Vice, in which Christian Bale delivered a transformative performance in the lead role. The film's very title served as a compact summation of how history would judge him.
歷來美國總統被譏諷為「可有可無」的職位，作為最有權勢的副總統，切尼一生也被拍成過電影，2018年由Christian Bale主演的電影《Vice》，在港台直接被譯為《為副不仁》，電影名字濃縮為他一生的評價。
A Republican at War With His Own Party
Despite sharing a party affiliation, Cheney and Donald Trump became bitter adversaries. Cheney publicly branded Trump a "coward" and described him as the greatest threat the republic had ever faced. In a remarkable act of political defiance, Cheney cast his presidential vote for the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris — a decision that left him increasingly marginalized within his own Republican Party. Following his death, the White House reportedly took deliberate steps to keep its response muted and low-key.
同為共和黨人，切尼與特朗普卻勢成水火，切尼曾稱特朗普為「懦夫」、「共和國有史以來最大的威脅」，在總統選舉切尼竟票投對手民主黨賀錦麗，令切尼在黨內被排擠。切尼逝世，白宮亦刻意冷處理。
The Hard Man's Greatest Compromise
Cheney had two daughters. His elder daughter, Liz, married Philip Perry, a former General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. His younger daughter, Mary, once served as a campaign aide to her father and is an openly gay woman. It was this family connection that led the famously conservative Cheney to break with much of his party and support same-sex marriage — arguably the single greatest ideological compromise of this otherwise unyielding political figure's life. It was a reminder that even the most hardened public figures are, in the end, shaped by the people they love.
切尼有兩位千金，大女Liz嫁給了前美國國土安全部法務長Philip Perry；次女Mary曾是父親的競選助手，是位出櫃女同志，作風保守的切尼因而支持同性婚姻，算是這位硬漢人生中最大的妥協吧。