Donald Rumsfeld

• Born: July 9, 1932
• Birthplace: Evanston, Illinois
• Died: June 29, 2021
• Place of death: Taos, New Mexico

Donald Rumsfeld was no stranger to Washington, DC, or to the Pentagon, when he accepted the position of secretary of defense under President George W. Bush in 2000. Rumsfeld also served as defense secretary in the Gerald Ford administration and advised several other Republican presidents on matters of defense.

Donald Henry Rumsfeld was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 9, 1932. A skilled high school wrestler, he continued to wrestle at Princeton University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1954. During his stint in the US Navy, he served as a pilot and a flight instructor and earned the all-Navy wrestling title.

Rumsfeld’s years in the private sector served to further his political career. As chief executive officer of pharmaceutical company G. D. Searle and Company and electronics firm General Instrument, he amassed a considerable personal fortune and developed close ties with many corporate conservatives, who had influence in the realms of both business and politics. Rumsfeld also served as chairman of the RAND Corporation military think tank.

After George W. Bush assumed the presidency in 2001, he nominated Rumsfeld as secretary of defense, twenty-five years after he first held that post in the administration of Gerald Ford. During Bush’s campaign, he employed many of the same tactics that Rumsfeld had suggested to Dole in 1998, and he adopted Rumsfeld’s conservative views on national defense and military policy.

Returning to the Pentagon, Rumsfeld made it clear that his agenda had changed since 1975, and he fought to increase military funding, update equipment, and employ new defense technology such as unmanned planes and quick-deploy forces. He continued his efforts to persuade the president and Congress of the need for a missile defense program.

Rumsfeld’s plans to redefine the mission of the US military were temporarily sidetracked in September 2001, when terrorists launched a series of attacks against the United States. He was in his office on September 11, when Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, but he escaped unharmed. In the aftermath of the attacks, Rumsfeld refocused the military to concentrate on the invasion of Afghanistan and, in 2003, the invasion of Iraq.

As the Iraq War wore on, it became apparent that the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration, and Rumsfeld in particular, came under increasing criticism because Hussein’s possession of such weapons was said to be the main impetus for the US invasion. Rumsfeld was also criticized for the administration’s inability to stem the spread of civil war in Iraq and for not being better able to prevent lethal attacks on US troops on the part of various insurgent groups.

President Bush continued to voice his support for Rumsfeld despite the growing number of complaints regarding his job as defense secretary, including those from former military leaders and members of the Republican Party. Nonetheless, Bush announced Rumsfeld’s resignation the day after Democratic Party leaders regained control of both houses of Congress following the nationwide elections of November 7, 2006. The return of the Democratic majority in Congress was largely viewed as a public repudiation of the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war. Robert Gates was appointed Rumsfeld’s successor in December of 2006.

Later Life out of Government

In 2007, Rumsfeld and his wife, Joyce, established the Rumsfeld Foundation in support of public service and military veterans. That same year, Stanford University's Hoover Institution appointed him as a distinguished visiting fellow. He published his memoir, Known and Unknown, in 2011, and in 2013, a documentary based off of interviews with Rumsfeld, titled The Unknown Known and directed by Errol Morris, premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. Continuing to write, after publishing Rumsfeld's Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life that same year and helping to develop a charitable mobile app by 2017, he published When the Center Held: Gerald Ford and the Rescue of the American Presidency (2018). Throughout these years following his resignation, he typically divided his time between New Mexico, Maryland, and Montana.

Impact

In addition to his successful career in the private sector, Rumsfeld had a significant political career, serving in many high-ranking positions, including the secretary of defense and the White House chief of staff. Rumsfeld is credited with modernizing the military—transforming it to meet twenty-first-century standards—and playing a major role in military actions after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Although lawsuits were filed against Rumsfeld in 2005 for his alleged involvement in abusive interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists held at US detention centers overseas including Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and Guantánamo Bay detention centerGuantánamo Bay, Cuba, a judge in the case ruled that he could not be held personally responsible.

Bibliography

Cockburn, Andrew. Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy. Scribner, 2007.

"Donald Rumsfeld Fast Facts." CNN, 8 July 2018, www.cnn.com/2013/08/06/us/donald-rumsfeld-fast-facts/index.html. Accessed 5 Dec. 2018.

Graham, Bradley. By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld. Perseus, 2009.

Linehan, Adam. "My Date with Rummy: Now 84, the Former Secretary of Defense Is as Wily as Ever." Task & Purpose, 12 June 2017, taskandpurpose.com/donald-rumsfeld-secretary-defense/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2018.

Scarborough, Rowan. Rumsfeld’s War: The Untold Story of America’s Anti-Terrorist Commander. Regnery, 2004.