Dick Cheney, the former US vice-president whose tough approach to fighting terrorism earned him the nickname Darth Vader, is facing a decision on whether to undergo a heart transplant.
Cheney uses a battery-powered heart pump, controlled by a box he wears on his waistcoat, to help circulate blood around his body. He told NBC's Today Show he would have to decide at some point on a possible transplant.
"I'd reached the point, after 30 years and five heart attacks, where I really needed to do something," he said of the heart pump. "It's a wondrous device; it's really a miracle of modern technology."
Cheney, who was George Bush's deputy throughout his eight years in office, has a history of heart problems, suffering his first heart attack aged 37 and his most recent last year. Cheney, who turned 70 this month, has had a pacemaker implanted and has suffered irregular heartbeats.
Since last year he has been keeping a relatively low profile, writing up his memoirs with the help of his daughter, Liz, at his home in Maryland. Before that he had assigned himself the role of Barack Obama's irritant-in-chief, relentlessly sniping at him over his domestic and anti-terror policies.
He remains critical, albeit more mutedly so. He told NBC he still expected Obama to be a one-term president.
"He embarked on a course of action when he became president that did not have as much support as he thought it did. When he got into healthcare reform, expanding the size of government, expanding the deficit – those are all weaknesses as I look at Barack Obama," Cheney said.
He softened his previous caustic claims that Obama was putting the nation in danger by sweeping aside the anti-terror laws put in place by the Bush-Cheney administration after 9/11. Those included what Cheney referred to as "enhanced interrogation techniques" – what others have called torture.
"I think [Obama] obviously has been through the fires of becoming president and having to make decisions and live with the consequences. I think he's learned that what we did was far more appropriate than he gave us credit for while he was the candidate."
Cheney said his reputation as Darth Vader after 9/11 had not worried him in the slightest. "I recognised at the time my public image would suffer. People out there who'd found me a warm, fuzzy, lovable sort before 9/11 would say 'My gosh! This guy's Darth Vader!' and I didn't worry about it. It went with the turf. If I had to break some china to get a job done, I did it. But it was with a strong feeling that this [9/11] isn't going to happen again on my watch."
