Iraq War chief dies
2-time Defense boss Rumsfeld, 88
Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary best known for serving in that position at the height of the Iraq War, has died. He was 88.
The Chicago native passed away at his home in Taos, NM, surrounded by family, according to a statement posted on his official Twitter account Wednesday.
“History may remember him for his extraordinary accomplishments over six decades of public service,” the statement read, “but for those who knew him best and whose lives were forever changed as a result, we will remember his unwavering love for his wife, Joyce, his family and friends, and the integrity he brought to a life dedicated to country.”
Rumsfeld worked under three Republican presidents — Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George W. Bush — over a career in public life that lasted more than 40 years.
In a statement Wednesday, Bush hailed what he called Rumsfeld’s “steady service as a wartime secretary of defense — a duty he carried out with strength, skill and honor.”
After serving a little more than six years as an Illinois congressman, Rumsfeld joined the Nixon administration in March 1969 and held a series of executive positions, including director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, counselor to the president and ambassador to NATO.
Following Nixon’s resignation in August 1974, Ford tapped Rumsfeld to be White House chief of staff. Rumsfeld spent 14 months in that position before becoming defense secretary for the first time
in November 1975.
Rumsfeld left government following Ford’s defeat by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election and launched a successful corporate career, interrupted by a brief run for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, a spectacular flop that he once described as humbling for a man used to success at the highest levels of government.
In 2001, Rumsfeld was recalled to public service by Bush, who tapped him to serve as defense secretary, making him the only person to hold that position twice.
Rumsfeld arrived at the Pentagon with a plan to “transform” the armed forces, but his tenure was defined by the US response to the 9/11 terror attacks. He oversaw the early successes of the US invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
However, Rumsfeld lost political support amid a series of setbacks in Iraq, including a bloody insurgency
and the
Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal. He announced his resignation as defense secretary in November 2006 and left office the following month.
Rumsfeld’s second spell at the Pentagon may be best remembered for his remarks in February 2002 when asked about the Bush administration’s contention that the Hussein government was supplying weapons of mass destruction to terror groups.
“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns,” Rumsfeld began. “There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones.”
The “known unknowns” remark was co-opted by Rumsfeld’s critics and thrown back at him during the later months of his tenure; documentarian Errol Morris titled his 2013 retrospective on Rumsfeld’s life and career “The Unknown Known.” Rumsfeld himself titled his best-selling 2011 memoir, “Known and Unknown.”
Rumsfeld’s critics took issue with his blunt and confrontational style, seeing it as a natural outgrowth of Bush’s supposed “cowboy” foreign policy.
After leaving government for the final time, Rumsfeld headed the Rumsfeld Foundation to promote public service and to work with charities that provide services and support for military families and wounded veterans.