ASHINGTON - For the last five years, Dick Cheney has been the epitome of the globe-trotting business baron. As chairman of the Halliburton Co., which has 100,000 employees in 130 countries, Cheney has earned millions of dollars for overseeing mergers, building a baseball stadium, and boosting the company's stock price.
But some of Halliburton's dealings are bound to be controversial. Under Cheney, for example, the company has conducted business in Iran and Libya by carefully maneuvering around US sanctions, using foreign-based subsidiaries, and foreign workers. Moreover, Cheney has frequently fought to lift US sanctions against oil-rich Iran despite concerns about terrorist activity by that country, and he has even raised the notion, heretical in GOP circles, of revisiting the wisdom of American sanctions against Cuba.
While Cheney's tenure at the head of the Dallas-based energy and construction company is one of the least-known aspects of his career, it is also one of the most revealing. After serving in government for nearly two decades, Cheney's connections helped him expand Halliburton's business.
The former White House chief of staff, former US House member, and former defense secretary has traveled from Bangladesh to Newfoundland in successful efforts to win oil-drilling contracts for his company. Just last month, Cheney said in a speech in Canada that the United States should lift sanctions against Iran and allow US oil companies to invest there.
''There's been a decision not to allow US firms to invest significantly in Iran, and I think that's a mistake,'' Cheney said.
Cheney also has said that unilateral sanctions against other countries are ''unwise.'' Speaking at the libertarian Cato Institute in 1988, Cheney broached a possible loosening of the trade embargo against Cuba, suggesting a free trade enclave could be established. Cheney also declared that unilateral economic sanctions ''almost never work.''
Brink Lindsey, the director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies, said Cheney's objections to the unilateral use of economic sanctions would be a welcome change in Washington.
A spokesman for George W. Bush could not be reached for comment about the Texas governor's views on sanctions.
David Lesar, the chief operating officer at Halliburton who is slated to take Cheney's place as chairman on Aug. 15, said Cheney opposed unilateral sanctions because they put the company at a disadvantage against multinational concerns.
''A lot of our competition is non-US companies,'' Lesar said. ''We do operate in some other sanctions-countries by complying with sanctions rules. You operate in those countries using non-US subsidiaries and non-US employees.'' Lesar said he couldn't specify the amount of business that Halliburton does in Iran and Libya, but he called it ''not substantial.'' The United States has sanctions against those two countries because of concerns about state-sponsored terrorism.
If Cheney becomes vice president, he will almost certainly be one of Bush's principal foreign policy advisers. And Halliburton is likely to have interests in almost any major country that presents a diplomatic problem. For example, Halliburton, with nearly $15 billion in revenue last year, has major business deals in Russia and Nigeria. In addition, Cheney is also a corporate director of such giant companies as Procter & Gamble Co., TRW, US West, and Lockheed Martin Corp., the world's largest defense contractor.
Lesar said Cheney transformed Halliburton during his five years there, doubling the company's size largely through acquisitions, most notably the $6.2 billion purchase of Dresser Industries Inc., in September 1998. The purchase temporarily made Halliburton the largest employer in Texas, although that status has changed with the recent sale of some subsidiaries. Halliburton is still a huge force in Bush's home state, however, with about 30,000 employees, and it is the number two employer in Houston. It ranks 115th on the Fortune 500.
The Dresser purchase was a major move that could determine Cheney's legacy at the company, according to Prudential Securities analyst Jeffrey Freedman. So far, Freedman said, analysts are watching to see ''if Halliburton can start to demonstrate an improvement in results.''
The company's fortunes follow oil prices. The stock was around $30 when Cheney took over, climbed to $63, dropped to $26 and closed yesterday at $421/4.
Lesar said the company won no state contracts through Cheney's friendship with the governor.
''Dick was active, as any major CEO in the state would be, in terms of education and taxation and environmental issues, in addition to knowing the governor and working with his father,'' Lesar said. Halliburton not only is the world's largest oilfield services company, it also is the construction giant that built the new Enron Field baseball stadium in downtown Houston.
Cheney's role at the company was more visionary than hands-on. One of his most valuable assets was his knowledge of government officials and world leaders, a benefit of his decades in public life.
Cheney has become very rich. Last year, he earned $1.28 million in salary and $640,914 in other compensation, as well as stock options that could be worth up to $18.8 million, according to Reuters.
On May 31, Cheney cashed in 100,000 shares of stock just as it neared a one-year high, which resulted in a $5 million payout, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission report.
If Cheney is elected vice president, he would earn $181,400 per year.
Kranish reported from Washington, Robinson from Boston.
