Donald Henry Rumsfeld was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under President George W Bush.
90 Facts About Donald Rumsfeld
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Donald Rumsfeld was both the youngest and the oldest secretary of defense.
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Additionally, Rumsfeld was a three-term US Congressman from Illinois, director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, counselor to the president, the US Representative to NATO, and the White House Chief of Staff.
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Donald Rumsfeld accepted an appointment by President Richard Nixon to head the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1969; appointed counsellor by Nixon and entitled to Cabinet-level status, he headed up the Economic Stabilization Program before being appointed ambassador to NATO.
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Donald Rumsfeld was later named CEO of General Instrument from 1990 to 1993 and chairman of Gilead Sciences from 1997 to 2001.
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Donald Rumsfeld gradually lost political support and resigned in late 2006.
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From 1943 to 1945, Donald Rumsfeld lived in Coronado, California, while his father was stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific in World War II.
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Donald Rumsfeld was a ranger at Philmont Scout Ranch in 1949.
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Donald Rumsfeld attended Baker Demonstration School, and later graduated from New Trier High School where he excelled academically as well as in sports.
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Donald Rumsfeld attended Princeton University on academic and NROTC partial scholarships.
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Donald Rumsfeld attended Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the Georgetown University Law Center, but did not take a degree from either institution.
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Donald Rumsfeld served in the United States Navy from 1954 to 1957, as a naval aviator and flight instructor.
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Donald Rumsfeld was designated aircraft commander of Anti-submarine Squadron 731 on October 1,1960, at Naval Air Station Grosse Ile, Michigan, where he flew the S2F Tracker.
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Donald Rumsfeld transferred to the Individual Ready Reserve when he became Secretary of Defense in 1975 and retired with the rank of captain in 1989.
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In 1957, during the Dwight D Eisenhower administration, Rumsfeld served as administrative assistant to David S Dennison Jr.
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Donald Rumsfeld was elected to the United States House of Representatives for Illinois's 13th congressional district in 1962, at the age of 30, and was re-elected by large majorities in 1964,1966, and 1968.
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Donald Rumsfeld was a co-founder of the Japanese-American Inter-Parliamentary Council in addition to being a leading cosponsor of the Freedom of Information Act.
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In 1965, following the defeat of Barry Goldwater by Lyndon B Johnson in the 1964 presidential election, which led to the Republicans losing many seats in the House of Representatives, Rumsfeld proposed new leadership for the Republicans in the House, suggesting that representative Gerald Ford from Michigan's 5th congressional district was the most suited candidate to replace Charles A Halleck as Republican leader.
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Donald Rumsfeld later served during Ford's presidency as his chief of staff in 1974, and was chosen by Ford to succeed James Schlesinger as United States Secretary of Defense in 1975.
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On one occasion, Donald Rumsfeld joined with other members of the House and traveled to Vietnam for a fact-finding mission to see for themselves how the war was going.
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The trip led to Donald Rumsfeld believing that the South Vietnamese government was much too dependent on the United States.
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Donald Rumsfeld was unsatisfied when he received a briefing about war planning from the commander of the US troops in Vietnam, General William Westmoreland.
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Donald Rumsfeld later took part in Friedman's PBS series Free to Choose.
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Donald Rumsfeld had voted against the creation of OEO when he was in Congress, and, according to his 2011 memoirs, he initially rejected Nixon's offer, citing his own inherent belief that the OEO did more harm than good, and he felt that he was not the right person for the job.
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Donald Rumsfeld was the subject of one of writer Jack Anderson's columns, alleging that "anti-poverty czar" Rumsfeld had cut programs to aid the poor while spending thousands to redecorate his office.
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Donald Rumsfeld dictated a four-page response to Anderson, labeling the accusations as falsehoods, and invited Anderson to tour his office.
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Donald Rumsfeld was given an office in the West Wing in 1969 and regularly interacted with the Nixon administration hierarchy.
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Donald Rumsfeld was named director of the Economic Stabilization Program in 1970 as well, and later headed up the Cost of Living Council.
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In February 1973, Donald Rumsfeld left Washington to serve as US Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels, Belgium.
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Donald Rumsfeld served as the United States' Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council and the Defense Planning Committee, and the Nuclear Planning Group.
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Donald Rumsfeld had been Ford's confidante since their days in the House, before Ford was House minority leader and was one of the members of the "Young Turks" which played a major role in bringing Ford to Republican leadership in the House of Representatives.
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Various newspaper and magazine articles at the time identified Donald Rumsfeld as having orchestrated these events.
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Donald Rumsfeld's confirmation hearing as Secretary of Defense began on November 12,1975.
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Donald Rumsfeld stated that the Soviet Union was a "clear and present danger," especially following the end of the Vietnam War, which Donald Rumsfeld described as the USSR's chance to build up its domination.
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At the age of 43, Donald Rumsfeld become the youngest person to serve as United States Secretary of Defense as of 2023.
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Donald Rumsfeld sought to reverse the gradual decline in the defense budget and to build up US strategic and conventional forces, undermining Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the SALT talks.
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Donald Rumsfeld asserted, along with Team B, that trends in comparative US-Soviet military strength had not favored the United States for 15 to 20 years and that, if continued, they "would have the effect of injecting a fundamental instability in the world".
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In 1977, Donald Rumsfeld was awarded the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Donald Rumsfeld was succeeded by former Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown.
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US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld following a test flight on a brand new Strategic Bomber aircraft Rockwell B-1 Lancer, April 1976.
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In early 1977 Donald Rumsfeld briefly lectured at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.
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Journalist Andrew Cockburn of Harper's Magazine claimed that Donald Rumsfeld suppressed news that Searle's key product, aspartame, was shown to have potentially dangerous effects by leveraging old government contacts at the Food and Drug Administration.
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Donald Rumsfeld served as chairman and chief executive officer of General Instrument from 1990 to 1993.
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From January 1997 until being sworn in as the 21st Secretary of Defense in January 2001, Donald Rumsfeld served as chairman of Gilead Sciences, Inc Gilead is the developer of Tamiflu, which is used in the treatment of bird flu as well as influenza A and influenza B in humans.
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The United States wished for Iraq to win the conflict, and Donald Rumsfeld was sent to the Middle East to serve as a mediator on behalf of the president.
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When Donald Rumsfeld visited Baghdad on December 20,1983, he met Saddam Hussein at Saddam's palace and engaged a 90-minute discussion with him.
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Donald Rumsfeld suggested that if US-Iraq relations could improve the US might support a new oil pipeline across Jordan, which Iraq had opposed but was now willing to reconsider.
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Donald Rumsfeld was a member of the Project for the New American Century, a think-tank dedicated to maintaining US primacy.
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Donald Rumsfeld's office said that he did not "recall it being brought before the board at any time" though Fortune magazine reported that "board members were informed about this project".
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Donald Rumsfeld briefly sought the presidential nomination in 1988, but withdrew from the race before primaries began.
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Donald Rumsfeld was instead named national chairman for Republican nominee Bob Dole's campaign.
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Donald Rumsfeld's tenure proved to be a pivotal and rocky one that led the United States military into the 21st century.
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Donald Rumsfeld pushed hard to send as small a force as soon as possible to both conflicts, a concept codified as the Rumsfeld Doctrine.
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Donald Rumsfeld, however feared that a conventional invasion of Afghanistan could bog down as had happened to the Soviets and the British.
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The September 21,2001 plan emerged after extensive dialogue, but Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asked for broader plans that looked beyond Afghanistan.
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Donald Rumsfeld announced in November 2001, that he received "authoritative reports" that Al-Qaeda's number three Mohammed Atef, bin Laden's primary military chief and a planner of the September 11 attacks on America, was killed by a US airstrike.
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On December 16,2001, Donald Rumsfeld visited US troops in Afghanistan at Bagram Air Base.
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One anonymous individual who was at the center of the action called this episode 'typical' and complained that 'Donald Rumsfeld never missed an opportunity to fail to cooperate.
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In mid-2002, Donald Rumsfeld announced that "The war is over in Afghanistan," to the disbelief of State Department, CIA, and military officials in the country.
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On January 22,2003, after the German and French governments voiced opposition to invading Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld labeled these countries as part of "Old Europe", implying that countries that supported the war were part of a newer, modern Europe.
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The plan, as it was then conceived, contemplated troop levels of up to 500,000, which Donald Rumsfeld felt was far too many.
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On July 24,2003, at a press conference at the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld commented on the release of photographs of the deceased sons of Saddam Hussein, Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein.
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In October 2003, Donald Rumsfeld approved a secret Pentagon "roadmap" on public relations, calling for "boundaries" between information operations abroad and the news media at home.
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People will "rally" to the word "sacrifice", Donald Rumsfeld noted after a meeting.
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Donald Rumsfeld advised aides "to test what the results could be" if the war on terrorism were renamed.
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Donald Rumsfeld ordered specific public Pentagon attacks on and responses to US newspaper columns that reported the negative aspects of the war.
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In 2006, Donald Rumsfeld responded to a question by Brit Hume of Fox News as to whether he pressed General Tommy Franks to lower his request for 400,000 troops for the war:.
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Donald Rumsfeld told Hume that Franks ultimately decided against such a troop level.
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Secretary Donald Rumsfeld responds to a reporter's question during a Pentagon press briefing.
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In December 2004, Donald Rumsfeld was heavily criticized for using a signing machine instead of personally signing over 1000 letters of condolence to the families of soldiers killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Donald Rumsfeld promised to personally sign all letters in the future.
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Various organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, called for investigations of Donald Rumsfeld regarding his involvement in managing the Iraq War and his support of the Bush administration's policies of "enhanced interrogation techniques", which are widely regarded as torture.
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Scholars have argued that Donald Rumsfeld "might be held criminally responsible if [he] would be prosecuted by the ICC".
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Eight US and other NATO-member retired generals and admirals called for Donald Rumsfeld to resign in early 2006 in what was called the "Generals Revolt", accusing him of "abysmal" military planning and lack of strategic competence.
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Donald Rumsfeld wrote a resignation letter dated November 6,2006, and, per the stamp on the letter, Bush saw it on Election Day, November 7,2006.
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Donald Rumsfeld declined to accept an advance for the publication of his memoir, and said he was donating all proceeds from the work to veterans groups.
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Donald Rumsfeld's book, entitled Known and Unknown: A Memoir, was released on February 8,2011.
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In conjunction with the publication of Known and Unknown, Rumsfeld established "The Rumsfeld Papers", a website with documents "related to the endnotes" of the book and his service during the George W Bush administration; during the months that followed the book's publication, the website was expanded to include over 4,000 documents from his archive.
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In 2007, Donald Rumsfeld established The Donald Rumsfeld Foundation, which focuses on encouraging public service in the United States and supporting the growth of free political and free economic systems abroad.
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Donald Rumsfeld was awarded the "Defender of the Constitution Award" at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, on February 10,2011.
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In February 2011, Donald Rumsfeld endorsed the repeal of the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, saying that allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve "is an idea whose time has come".
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In October 2011, Donald Rumsfeld conducted an interview with Al Jazeera's Washington, DC, bureau chief Abderrahim Foukara.
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Donald Rumsfeld was the subject of the 2013 Errol Morris documentary The Unknown Known, the title a reference to his response to a question at a February 2002 press conference.
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In January 2016, in partnership with the literary and creative agency Javelin, which handled design and development, Donald Rumsfeld released a mobile app game of solitaire called Churchill Solitaire, emulating a variant of the card game as played by Winston Churchill.
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On January 5,2021, Donald Rumsfeld was one of the ten living former Secretaries of Defense that sent a warning letter in order to warn President Trump not to involve the military in a 2020 presidential election dispute.
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On June 29,2021, Donald Rumsfeld died from multiple myeloma at his home in Taos, New Mexico.
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Donald Rumsfeld was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on August 24,2021.
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In 1975 and 2001, Rumsfeld was overwhelmingly confirmed by the US Senate after presidents Gerald Ford and George W Bush, respectively, appointed him as US Secretary of Defense.
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Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld testifying at Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Defense Department budget on March 9,1976.
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Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld speaking during a press conference at The Pentagon on October 6,1976.