Dick "Darth Vader" Cheney, the most powerful US vice president

Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84 was probably the most powerful and most inflential vice president in America's history. Serving for eight years as President George W Bush's deputy, he was on occasions, more presidential than vice presidential. In an informal srrangement with Bush, Cheney took on the role of masterminding America's national security and international security policy. It was never an official, properly formulated agreement. But fronm the moment Bush agreed to let his vice president take on a role never donned by any of his predecessors, Cheney assumed one of the most powerful jobs in Washington. Rather than staying in the background, like previous and subsequent vice presidents, Cheney created his own power base and was the key person driving the US to take on aggressive stances towards the country's potential or suspected enemies. After the 9/11 terrorist atrocities by al-Qaeda, Cheney adopted what he called a One Per Cent doctrine which quickly became known as the Cheney Doctrine, in which the US reserved the right to take preemptive action against any enemies to stop them before they attacked the US, even if the evidece was very very low. It was his most controversial idea which George W Bush eagerly agreed to. Thus followed the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The justification for the former was the Taleban's support for al-Qaeda terrorists operating from Afghanistan, and the latter for what Cheney insisted was evidence that Saddam Hussein had provided help to al-Qaeda for the 9/11 atrocity and that the Baghdad regime had secret stocks of weapons of mass destruction. Neither of the reasonings for the Iraq invasion proved to be accurate. But Cheney never regretted the role he played in bringing down Saddam Hussein. After a TV late show comedian referred to Cheney as Darth Vader, he didn't object. In fact, he loved the sobriquet. BUY AGENT REDRUTH, MY NEW SPY THRILLER, DESCRIBED IN REVIEWS AS A FANTASTIC READ. CHECK IT OUT ON AMAZON OR IN WATERSTONES.