WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Thursday, December 6^th at the Pierre Hotel in New York City, Hudson Institute will confer its 2012 Herman Kahn Award on former Vice President Dick Cheney in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the United States and its government. Cheney will be introduced and formally presented with the Kahn Award by his former chief of staff and former national security advisor, Hudson Senior Vice President Lewis Libby. Vice President Cheney will accept the award and he will pay tribute to noted investor and philanthropist Allan R. Tessler, who recently took emeritus status after more than five productive years as chairman of Hudson's Board of Trustees.

The annual Herman Kahn Award was established to honor the legacy of the legendary futurist and policy analyst who founded Hudson Institute in 1961. The award is a signal tribute to visionary leaders who personify Herman Kahn's dedication to American national security, his realistic but consistent optimism about America's future, and his deep appreciation of technological innovation as a driver of global economic progress.

Dick Cheney receives the 2012 Herman Kahn Award for his decades of high-level public service during some of the most fraught and critical moments in recent American history: as White House chief of staff in the post-Watergate administration of Gerald Ford; as a six-term congressman from Wyoming; as Secretary of Defense during Operation Just Cause in Panama and the first Persian Gulf War in Iraq; and as Vice President of the United States for eight years concluding in January 2009. Since leaving office, Vice President Cheney has published a widely acclaimed memoir, In My Time. He and his distinguished wife Lynne V. Cheney have two daughters and seven grandchildren.

"Dick Cheney's life and career in public service and the private sector embody Herman Kahn's zest, spirit, and ceaseless drive to find rational, effective answers to the most difficult problems our nation faces," says Hudson Institute President and CEO Kenneth Weinstein. "He is an ideal honoree: a long-time friend of the Institute, and a close friend of Chairman Emeritus Allan Tessler, whose wise leadership we also salute."

            What: Hudson Institute's 2012 Herman Kahn Award Dinner honoring Dick Cheney

            When: Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. (Doors open at 6:00)

            Where: The Pierre Hotel, 2 East 61^st Street at Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10065

            Credentialed press only

Hudson Institute is a nonpartisan policy research organization dedicated to innovative research and analysis. Founded in 1961, Hudson celebrates a more than half-century tradition of forging new ideas to promote security, prosperity, and freedom. http://www.hudson.org.

For more information contact James Bologna at 202-974-6456 or jbologna@hudson.org

SOURCE Hudson Institute