Donald Rumsfeld dead at 88: Former defense secretary at helm of Iraq, Afghanistan wars
He is most known for second term as defense secretary from 2001 to 2006, a tumultuous period of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars
He was number 268 on the list.
Donald Rumsfeld,
who charted an impressive Washington career serving under four
presidents but whose legacy largely was defined by his controversial
tenure as defense secretary during the Iraq War, has died, his family announced Wednesday. He was 88.
Rumsfeld,
a confident adviser to power with a trenchant style that made him
admirers as well as enemies, had a long and winding career in public
life that spanned five decades. He had been a congressman and a White
House chief of staff, and had a successful corporate career, too. But it
was his second term as secretary of defense from 2001 to 2006 – during
the most tumultuous period of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – for which
he is most known.
"It is with deep sadness that we share the
news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman and
devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather," Rumsfeld’s
family said in a statement. "At 88, he was surrounded by family in his
beloved Taos, New Mexico. History may remember him for his extraordinary
accomplishments over six decades of public service, 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."
While
his time as President Gerald Ford’s defense secretary was dominated by
lofty management challenges regarding the direction of America’s
changing military, his role under President George W. Bush was quite
different — and set in an instant.
On 9/11, just months into the Bush presidency, Rumsfeld was in his
office in the E-Ring at the Pentagon. While monitoring the attacks on
the Twin Towers in Manhattan, the Pentagon was hit with a third hijacked
plane.
"I went outside and there were little pieces of metal
spread all over the grass, and the smoke was billowing up, and the flame
was very visible and leaping out of the building," he once described.
After
the attacks, Rumsfeld was part of a senior-level effort, which also
included Vice President Dick Cheney, to marshal war against Al Qaeda and
the Taliban in Afghanistan. But then their sights were turned to Iraq,
where he and others insisted Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass
destruction. During the beginning of the war, his off-the-cuff and
sometimes acerbic style made the press conferences events in themselves.
He rode a wave of popularity and never conceded that the war was not
going as well as his press people were saying publicly.
But then things started to go wrong — abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers was exposed in the Abu Ghraib prison in 2004.
Rumsfeld
started to get the blame for the war going south; critics said the
number of troops for the post-invasion wasn’t enough and the
post-invasion plans inadequate.
When asked by a young soldier at
a town meeting when they would get more armored vehicles, Rumsfeld
famously said, "As you know, you go to war with the army you have — not
the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."
As
casualties mounted and no WMDs were found, the press turned on him. When
it was clear the insurgency could not be ignored and casualties were
much higher than expected, he began facing pressure to resign. He
resisted those calls until the 2006 midterms, when Democrats knocked
Republicans out of power in Congress. Bush replaced Rumsfeld with Robert
Gates.
The resignation marked the end of Rumsfeld’s long public career,
though he did not fade from public view — he made media appearances and
released "Known and Unknown: A Memoir" in 2011.
Rumsfeld’s
political career started early in life. Born in 1932 in Evanston,
Illinois, he was an Eagle Scout and athlete who graduated from
Princeton. He served in the Navy as a naval aviator and flight
instructor from 1954 to 1957, and later as commander of an
anti-submarine squadron in 1960. (He retired from the Reserves as a
captain in 1989.)
But his love seemed to be politics and in 1957
Rumsfeld went to work for Republican Rep. Robert P. Griffin of Illinois,
and won his first election – to the U.S. House of Representatives in
1962 -- at the age of 30. On the home front, he was already starting a
family, having married Joyce P. Pierson in 1953. They had three
children, two daughters and a son.
Rumsfeld continued to
represent the 13th District of Illinois for three more terms before
resigning to work in various roles in the Nixon administration, most
notably the Office of Economic Opportunity. During this time, he hired
old friends Frank Carlucci and Dick Cheney. All three would become
secretaries of defense in subsequent administrations.
In 1973, Rumsfeld became ambassador to NATO, where he oversaw a
number of Cold War matters ranging from the nuclear weapons arms race to
the conflict between Turkey and Cyprus. Nixon resigned in 1974 and
Rumsfeld was called back to serve as President Ford’s transition
chairman, his chief of staff and then secretary of defense. He oversaw
the post-Vietnam transition to an all-volunteer military while ramping
up spending and the U.S. arsenal. He was awarded the Presidential Medal
of Freedom in 1977.
Rumsfeld’s time in Washington did not seem
appreciated by all. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who at
times clashed with Rumsfeld, once said he was "a special Washington
phenomenon: the skilled full-time politician-bureaucrat in whom
ambition, ability, and substance fuse seamlessly."
For the first time since a short stint in the private sector after
Princeton, Rumsfeld left civil service and politics for the corporate
world, heading worldwide pharmaceutical company G.D Searle & Co., as
well the General Instrument Company and the board of Gilead Sciences.
During
this time he did not abandon Washington altogether. He served on a
number of national commissions and as envoy to the Middle East for
President Ronald Reagan in 1983. It was during this time, on a trip to
Baghdad, that he met Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. They forged ties in
a mutual opposition to Iran. Some 30 years later, Rumsfeld would be
using the entire might of the U.S. military to depose Saddam instead.
Years
later, in his memoir, Rumsfeld acknowledged that the weapons of mass
destruction were never found and mistakes were made in the pre-war
assessments (he had said he knew where they were at the time). He also
apologized for his infamous "stuff happens" response when asked about
the looting of Baghdad’s artifacts in the immediate aftermath of the
2003 invasion.
Rumsfeld went back to the private sector after his resignation,
sitting out the subsequent Democratic administration, and writing his
memoir. He also released many of his papers at the time and made
scattered media appearances, remaining one of the more controversial
figures of the war period.
Despite that, in February 2011, fellow
conservative Republicans awarded Rumsfeld the "Defender of the
Constitution Award" at the 2011 Conservative Political Action
Conference in Washington.
