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Donald Rumsfeld
1932–2021 · 89 years Tier II
The youngest man to run the Pentagon, and later the oldest
The thesis he wrote at Princeton in 1954 was about the steel seizure of 1952 and what it did to presidential power, which is an odd thing to be thinking about at 21 and a useful thing to have thought about later. He grew up in Winnetka on Chicago's North Shore, spent two war years in Coronado, California, while his father served in the Pacific, made Eagle Scout in 1949, played drums and saxophone at New Trier, and captained both the wrestling team and the lightweight football team at Princeton. He flew for the Navy as an aviator and flight instructor for three years, worked two congressional offices and a Chicago investment bank, and in 1962, at 30, won a House seat. He co-sponsored the Freedom of Information Act.
Nixon handed him the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1969, an agency he had voted against creating, and he hired Dick Cheney and Frank Carlucci to run pieces of it. Nixon, on tape in 1971, called him a ruthless little bastard and meant it as praise. Ambassador to NATO, then Gerald Ford's chief of staff, then Secretary of Defense at 43 in the reshuffle Washington called the Halloween Massacre — confirmed 97 to 2. He pushed cruise missiles and the B-1, backed the Team B challenge to the CIA's Soviet estimates, and oversaw the move to an all-volunteer force. Twenty-four years in business followed: G.D. Searle, General Instrument, Gilead Sciences. George W. Bush brought him back in January 2001, at 68, making him the oldest to hold the job as well as the youngest.
On December 20, 1983, as Ronald Reagan's Middle East envoy, he spent 90 minutes with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, and told the Iraqi foreign minister that American help was inhibited by certain things, naming the use of chemical weapons. The Washington Post later reported that his visits led to closer cooperation between the two governments. On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, an aide's notes record him calling for evidence fast enough to hit Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden at once: go massive, sweep it all up, things related and not. He waved away General Eric Shinseki's estimate that holding Iraq would take several hundred thousand troops. On a memo capping forced standing by prisoners at four hours he wrote by hand: I stand for 8 to 10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?
He is not a settled figure and the argument has not closed. Eight retired generals and admirals demanded his resignation in 2006, Human Rights Watch called for an investigation, and suits in American and German courts tried to reach him over torture — a federal judge ruled in 2007 that he could not be held personally liable for acts connected to his government job. Rumsfeld answered with paper: a 2011 memoir whose proceeds he gave to veterans' charities, a website of more than 4,000 documents from his own files, and hours of camera time for Errol Morris. He died of multiple myeloma at his home in Taos, New Mexico, on June 29, 2021, and was buried at Arlington that August.
Lifespan
Donald Rumsfeld's life against the full span of the corpus.
Notable works
-
Report of the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat
other
Concluded Iraq, Iran and North Korea could field intercontinental missiles within a decade 1998 -
The Rumsfeld Foundation
company
Self-funded fellowships for public service and Central Asian graduate students 2007 -
Known and Unknown: A Memoir
book
He took no advance and gave the proceeds to veterans' groups 2011 -
The Rumsfeld Papers
other
More than 4,000 documents from his own files, published online alongside the memoir 2011 -
Rumsfeld's Rules
book
The maxims he had been circulating in Washington since the Ford years 2013
Life in brief
with age at each point- July 9, 1932 aged 0 Born in Chicago
- 1954 aged ~22 Graduates from Princeton and enters the Navy as an aviator His senior thesis was on the 1952 steel seizure and presidential power.
- 1962 aged ~30 Elected to the House from Illinois at 30 He co-sponsored the Freedom of Information Act and voted for the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968.
- November 17, 1975 aged 43 Confirmed Secretary of Defense at 43 by a vote of 97 to 2 The youngest person ever to hold the office.
- December 20, 1983 aged 51 Meets Saddam Hussein in Baghdad as Reagan's Middle East envoy Ninety minutes, during the Iran-Iraq War, when Washington wanted Iraq to win.
- September 11, 2001 aged 69 The Pentagon is hit and he raises readiness to DEFCON 3 The building, he told reporters that evening, would be in business tomorrow.
- March 20, 2003 aged 70 The invasion of Iraq begins Baghdad fell in three weeks. The looting and the insurgency followed.
- 2004 aged ~72 Abu Ghraib breaks and he offers to resign These events occurred on my watch, he said. I am accountable for them. Bush refused the resignation.
- November 8, 2006 aged 74 Bush announces his resignation the day after the midterms His letter had been dated November 6.
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