Dick Cheney: The man whose legacy was defined by the Iraq war

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US Vice President Dick Cheney speaks to Air Force personnel at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois March 21, 2006. 

Photo credit: Reuters

Dick Cheney, one of the most important figures in America’s neo-conservative movement, has died at the age of 84. Cheney had a long career in government and was considered by many as one of the most powerful vice-presidents in US history.

Cheney started his career in politics in 1968 in the office of William Steiger, a Republican representative from Wisconsin, before joining the staff of Donald Rumsfeld, who was at the time the director of the Office of Economic Opportunity.