With the death of Dick Cheney , the United States bids farewell to a vice-president — he served under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009 — who defied the usual Hollywood stereotype of the post. Vice-presidents, when they appear on film and TV, are usually cast as the bit-players, as politically inert or, at most, as comic relief. Cheney was something else. Widely seen as the real power and driving force of the Bush presidency, and as the architect of the US invasion of Iraq , Cheney