Cheney sure his heart will serve

WASHINGTON - Doctors for Republican vice-presidential candidate Dick Cheney say he will make a full recovery after his slight heart attack.

Cheney says he feels good and can serve if elected.

He does not look like a man susceptible to stress. Always calm and courtly, he has overseen a war in the Gulf and, more recently, piloted one of the world's largest energy companies. He does, however, have a history of heart trouble, dating back to 1978 when he had his first mild heart attack.

It was the even temperament and the distinguished career, as well as a reputation for disciplined thinking and political adroitness, that persuaded George W. Bush to pick Cheney as his running mate in July.

Even then, though, worries were aired about his medical fitness. The campaign responded with letters from doctors asserting that he was in "excellent health."

Bush yesterday dismissed any speculation that ill health might force Cheney to abandon the ticket. "Secretary Cheney will make a great vice-president," he said.

Technically, Bush could replace Cheney with the approval of only his party's national committee, without reference to the US Congress - if he does so before the Electoral College meets on December 12.

A longtime friend of the Bush family, Cheney, 59, first made his mark as an unflappable chief of staff in the Gerald Ford White House in the mid-1970s. He served for a decade as a US Representative from Wyoming before joining George Bush sen's cabinet as Secretary of Defence.

He won widespread respect after the US sent troops to Kuwait in August 1990 to eject the invading Iraqis.

In 1993, Cheney left Washington and politics, he thought for good. He became chief executive of the Halliburton energy conglomerate in Houston, Texas.

But this year he agreed to head the team to identify possible candidates for Bush's running mate.

When Bush revealed he had gone for Cheney, there was some consternation. He had gone for safe hands rather than charisma. Rarely without jacket and tie, Cheney is not a man who fizzes on the campaign trail. Questions focused quickly on the history of minor heart attacks, which culminated in successful triple bypass surgery in 1988.

Democrats exploited other avenues of attack, pointing to conservative votes Cheney cast while in Congress against, for instance, supporting the release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and against gun control, environmental and education funding measures.

Cheney said most of those votes were aimed at reducing the budget deficit.

Questions were also asked about a $US35 million ($83.5 million) retirement package Halliburton extended to its departing chief executive. Several weeks later, Cheney was forced to sacrifice most of that, agreeing to give up all stock options still owed to him to him once he took office.

Cheney's wife, Lynne Anne Vincent, is a former head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, well known for her conservative views.

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