Donald Rumsfeld

At 88 years old, Donald Rumsfeld has this physical status:

Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9, 1932) is an American former politician.

Rumsfeld served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under Gerald Ford, and then from January 2001 to December 2006 under George W. Bush.

He is both the youngest and the second-oldest person to have served as Secretary of Defense.

In addition, Rumsfeld was a three-term resident of the United States. (1963-1969), associate director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (1969-1970), counsellor to the president (1969–1973), US Permanent Representative to NATO (1973-1974-1954), and White House Chief of Staff (1974–1975).

He served as the CEO and chairman of several companies during his tenure as Defense Minister. Rumsfeld, a native of Illinois, earned a bachelor's degree in political science at Princeton University in 1954.

After three years in the Navy, he ran for Congress in Illinois' 13th congressional District, winning in 1962 at the age of 30.

Early life and education

Donald Henry Rumsfeld was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Jeannette Kearsley (née Husted) and George Donald Rumsfeld. His father was born from a German family that immigrated in the 1870s from Weyhe in Lower Saxony, and he was occasionally chastised for being a "strong Swiss" in a rabble. Rumsfeld, a 16-31-year-old boy from Winnetka, Illinois, became an Eagle Scout in 1949 and has been the winner of both the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America and the Silver Buffalo Award in 2006. His family attended a Congregational church in Winnetka. Rumsfeld lived in Coronado, California, from 1943 to 1945, while his father was stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific during World War II. In 1949, he became a ranger at Philmont Scout Ranch.

Rumsfeld attended Baker Demonstration School and later graduated from New Trier High School. He earned partial and academic scholarships at Princeton University. He received an A.B. degree in 1954. After completing a senior thesis titled "The Steel Seizure Case of 1952 and Its Effects on Presidential Politics," he moved to Washington, D.C. During his time at Princeton, he was an outstanding amateur wrestler, becoming captain of the varsity wrestling team and captain of the Lightweight Football team, who played defensive back. Frank Carlucci, another potential Defense Minister, was friends with him while at Princeton.

Joyce P. Pierson was born in 1956 and married Rumsfeld on December 27, 1954. They had three children, six grandchildren, and one grandchild. He attended Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the Georgetown University Law Center, but not from either school or university, but not from any of them.

Rumsfeld served in the US Navy from 1954 to 1957 as a naval aviator and flight instructor. After which he transitioned to the T-28 advanced trainer, he began his training in the North American SNJ Texan basic trainer. He reservistically served in the Naval Reserve in 1957 and then served his naval service in flying and administrative posts. He was assigned to Anti-Submarine Squadron 662 at Naval Air Station Anacostia, District of Columbia, on July 1, 1958, as a selective reservist. Rumsfeld was named aircraft commander of Anti-Submarine Squadron 731 on October 1, 1960, at Naval Air Station Grosse Ile, Michigan, where he flew the S2F Tracker. In 1975, he joined the Individual Ready Reserve and then resigned as the Captain in 1989.

Retirement and later life (2006–2021)

Rumsfeld toured the New York City publishing houses in the months leading up to his resignation. After receiving what one industry source described as "high bids," he reached an agreement with the Penguin Group to publish the book under the Sentinel HC imprint. Rumsfeld refused to pay for the publication of his book in advance, but said he was donating the funds from the work to veterans organizations. On February 8, 2011, his book titled Known and Unknown: A Memoir was published.

Rumsfeld also founded "The Rumsfeld Papers," a website with documents "related to the book's and his administration during the George W. Bush administration; during the months that followed the book's release, the website was expanded to include over 4,000 items from his archives; in conjunction with the book's launch, Rumsfeld established "The Rumsfeld Papers" was released; Among other items, the topics included his congressional voting record, the Nixon administration, records, and memos of meetings as he served with Ford, Reagan, and George W. Bush administrations, private sector reports, and NATO documents as of June 2011.

Rumsfeld Foundation, which focuses on increasing the presence of free and open economic institutions in the United States, was founded in 2007. Talented employees from the private sector who wish to serve for a short time in government are given fellowships by the educational foundation. Rumsfeld personally funded the charity. The foundation had over 90 fellows from Central Asia as of January 2014, over million in tuition and stipend aid for graduate students, received over million in microfinance grants, and gave over $100 to charities for veterans of veterans' affairs.

On February 10, 2011, Rumsfeld was named "Defender of the Constitution Award" at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

Rumsfeld chastised former Cabinet member Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in her memoir, claiming she was simply unfit for office after his departure from office. Rumsfeld "doesn't know what he's talking about," she said in 2011. The reader may wonder what might be correct about the tense subject matter."

Rumsfeld endorsed the removal of the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy in February 2011, saying that allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve "is an idea whose time has come."

Rumsfeld spoke out against the 2011 military offensive in Libya, telling ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper that the Obama administration should "recognize the mission" has to establish the coalition. The alliance should not determine the mission." Rumsfeld also used the term "confusion" six times to describe the UN-backed military force in Libya.

Rumsfeld conducted an interview with Al Jazeera's Washington, D.C. bureau chief Abderrahim Foukara in October 2011. Foukara asked Rumsfeld whether the Bush administration had sent enough troops into Iraq to protect the country's borders, as well as whether the US was complicit in the deaths of innocent Iraqis. People in the Pentagon told Rumsfeld that the number of troops sent into Iraq was insufficient, according to Foukara. "You keep making assertions that are utterly inaccurate," Rumsfeld said. No one in the Pentagon said they were not strong enough." Foukara pressed Rumsfeld repeatedly. "Do you want to yell or do you want an interview?" Rumsfeld wondered later. "Do you think the numbers that you went to Iraq with did absolve you from the responsibility of tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis killed by the Coalition and those criminals we talked about?" Foukara later asked. The question was "pejorative" by Rumsfeld, who said Foukara was "not being courteous" and that she was "just talking over, over, and over again."

Rumsfeld was the subject of the 2013 Errol Morris film The Unknown Known, which refers to his reaction to a question raised at a press conference in February 2002. "Discusses his career in Washington, D.C., from the early 1960s to planning the invasion of Iraq in 2003."

Rumsfeld unveiled a mobile app game of solitaire in January 2016, emulating a version of the card game that was played by Winston Churchill in partnership with the literary and creative agency Javelin, which handled planning and design. The Churchill family and Rumsfeld announced that all proceeds from the game will be donated to charity.

Rumsfeld declared in June 2016 that he would vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race.

Rumsfeld, one of the ten living former Defense Ministers, sent an alert letter on January 5, 2021, advising President Trump not to involve the military in a presidential election dispute in 2020.

Rumsfeld died of multiple myeloma at his home in Taos, New Mexico, on June 29, 2021, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on August 24, 2021.

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Career in government (1962–1975)

Rumsfeld served as administrative assistant to David S. Dennison Jr., a congressman representing Ohio's 11th district. He began in 1959 to serve as a staff assistant to Michigan Congressman Robert P. Griffin. Rumsfeld, who worked with investment banking company A. G. Becker & Co. from 1960 to 1962, decided on becoming a member of Congress.

In 1962, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives for Illinois' 13th congressional district, the highest seat in the state's 13th congressional district at the age of 30, and 1968, by majorities in 1964, 1966, and 1968. He served on the Joint Economic Committee, the Committee on Science and Aeronautics, and the Government Operations Committee, as well as the Subcommittees on Military and Foreign Operations while in Congress. In addition to being a leading promoter of the Freedom of Information Act, he was also a co-founder of the Japanese-American Inter-Parliamentary Council.

Rumsfeld suggested that Senator Gerald Ford of Michigan's 5th congressional district, not necessarily losing many seats in the House of Representatives, in 1965, following Barry Goldwater's assassination of Barry Goldwater by Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 presidential race, which also resulted in the Republicans losing a large number of seats. Rumsfeld, along with other members of the Republican caucus, then encouraged Gerald Ford to run for Republican president. In 1965, Ford defeated Halleck and became the House Minority Leader. The group of Republicans who advised Ford to run for the Republican leadership later became known as the "Young Turks" in the media. Rumsfeld later served as Ford's chief of staff in 1974, and Ford chose James Schlesinger to replace him as his Defense Minister in 1975.

During Rumsfeld's tenure as a member of the United States House of Representatives, he expressed reservations about the Vietnam War's effectiveness, saying that President Johnson and his national security staff was too overconfident with how the war was being carried out. Rumsfeld and some other House members of the House of Commons joined one another on a fact-finding trip to see for themselves how the war was unfolding. Rumsfeld later learned that the South Vietnamese government was much too dependent on the US. General William Westmoreland, the commander of the United States troops in Vietnam, was unsatisfied with his briefing on war planning. Rumsfeld was forced to cosponsor a motion to bring the conduct of the war to the House floor for further debate and discussion of the mismanagement that ultimately determined the fate of the war. However, the Democrats, who at the time were under constant pressure from the Johnson administration, decided against the bill from being considered.

Rumsfeld, a young congressman, attended seminars at the University of Chicago, which he credits with introducing him to the notion of an all volunteer military corpse, as well as economist Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics. He appeared in Friedman's PBS series Free to Choose later.

Rumsfeld voted in favour of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, as well as the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Rumsfeld resigned from Congress in 1969 – his fourth term – to serve in the Nixon administration in a variety of executive branch positions. Nixon named Rumsfeld as the head of the United States Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), a cabinet position. Rumsfeld rejected the creation of OEO while in Congress, but in his 2011 memoirs, he rejected Nixon's bid citing his own belief that the OEO did more harm than good, and he felt he was not the right one for the job. 119–121 He accepted the OEO appointment with Nixon's "warrants that he would be more than an assistant to the President" with Cabinet-level rank and an office in the White House, which "sweetened (the OEO position) with rank and responsibility." Rumsfeld, the reorganizing of the Office as director, needed to be "a laboratory for experimental programs," he later referred to in his 2011 memoir. 125 Many useful anti-poverty services were saved by allocating funds to them from other less-successful government services. He recruited Frank Carlucci and Dick Cheney to work under him during this period.

He was the subject of one of writer Jack Anderson's columns, alleging that "anti-poverty czar" Rumsfeld had cut services to help the homeless, but the poor had to be paid out of funds to redecorate his office. Rumsfeld ordered Anderson to visit his office on four pages, labeling the allegations as falsehoods. Anderson did not retract his statements on the tour, and only later confessed that his column was a mistake.

: 125

Nixon appointed Rumsfeld Counselor to the President in December 1970, a general advisory position; in this capacity, he retained Cabinet rank. 75 He was given a West Wing position in 1969 and closely collaborated with the Nixon administration in Washington. He was appointed as the head of the Economic Stabilization Program in 1970 and later headed the Cost of Living Council. "At least Rummy is tough enough" says Nixon about Rumsfeld, "he's a ruthless little bastard." You can be positive of that."

Rumsfeld left Washington, D.C., in February 1973 to serve as the United States' ambassador. Ambassador in Brussels, Belgium, to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). He served as the US Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council and the Defense Planning Committee as well as the Nuclear Planning Group. He served the US in a variety of military and diplomatic capacities, and he was asked to help mediate a war between Cyprus and Turkey.

: 157

Rumsfeld was called back to Washington in August 1974 to serve as the transition chairman for Gerald Ford, after Nixon resigned as president in the aftermath of the Watergate affair. He had been Ford's confidant since his days in the House, long before Ford was House minority leader and was one of the "Young Turks" party that played a key role in bringing Ford to Republican leadership in the House of Representatives. Following Ford's selection of General Alexander Haig to be the new Supreme Allied Commander Europe, as the new president arrived in, Ford named Rumsfeld White House Chief of Staff. Rumsfeld served from 1974 to 1975.

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