Donald Rumsfeld

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Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9, 1932) became the 21st Secretary of Defense of the United States in 2001. Before that, he had a long career in private industry and public service. Having served under President Gerald Ford, he is both the youngest and oldest Secretary of Defense.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, he attended Princeton University on scholarship (AB, 1954) and served in the United States Navy (1954-57) as a Naval aviator. He went to Washington, DC, in 1957, during the Eisenhower Administration, to serve as Administrative Assistant to a Congressman. After a stint with an investment banking firm, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois in 1962, at the age of 30, and was re-elected in 1964, 1966, and 1968.

Rumsfeld resigned from Congress in 1969 during his fourth term to serve in the Nixon Administration as:

• Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, Assistant to the President, and a member of the President's Cabinet (1969-1970);
• Counselor to the President, Director of the Economic Stabilization Program;
• member of the President's Cabinet (1971-1972).

In 1973, he left Washington, DC, to serve as U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium (1973-1974).

In August 1974, he was called back to Washington, DC, to serve in the Ford Administration successively as:

• Chairman of the transition to the Presidency of Gerald R. Ford (1974);
• White House Chief of Staff member of the President's Cabinet (1974-1975);
• The 13th U.S. Secretary of Defense (1975-1977), the youngest in the country's history .

From 1977 to 1985 he served as Chief Executive Officer, President, and then Chairman of G.D. Searle & Co., a worldwide pharmaceutical company. (It was under Rumsfeld that Searle got FDA approval for the artificial sweetener aspartame, after many years of rejection.[1]) The successful turnaround there earned him awards as the Outstanding Chief Executive Officer in the Pharmaceutical Industry from the Wall Street Transcript (1980) and Financial World (1981). From 1985 to 1990 he was in private business.

Rumsfeld served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Instrument Corporation from 1990 to 1993. A leader in broadband transmission, distribution, and access control technologies for cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcasting applications, the company pioneered the development of the first all-digital high definition television (HDTV) technology. After taking the company public and returning it to profitability, Rumsfeld returned to private business in late 1993. Until being sworn in as the 21st Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld served as Chairman of Gilead Sciences, Inc.

During his business career, Rumsfeld continued public service in a variety of posts, including:

• Member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control - Reagan Administration (1982 - 1986);
• President Reagan's Special Envoy on the Law of the Sea Treaty (1982 - 1983);
• Senior Advisor to President Reagan's Panel on Strategic Systems (1983 - 1984);
• Member of the U.S. Joint Advisory Commission on U.S./Japan Relations - Reagan Administration (1983 - 1984);
• President Reagan's Special Envoy to the Middle East (1983 - 1984);
• Member of the National Commission on the Public Service (1987 - 1990);
• Member of the National Economic Commission (1988 - 1989);
• Member of the Board of Visitors of the National Defense University (1988 - 1992);
• Member of the Commission on U.S./Japan Relations (1989 - 1991);
• FCC's High Definition Television Advisory Committee (1992 - 1993);
• Chairman, Commission on the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States (1998 - 1999);
• Member of the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission (1999 - 2000); and
• Chairman of the U.S. Commission to Assess National Security Space Management and Organization (2000).

Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein during his 1983 visit. Video frame capture, see the complete video.

During his period as Reagan's Special Envoy to the Middle East, Rumsfeld was the main conduit for crucial American military intelligence, hardware and strategic advice to Saddam Hussein, then fighting Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. During this period, US policy supported Iraq, believing it to be a useful buffer against Iran's new religious government. When he visited on December 19-20, 1983, he and Saddam Hussein had a 90 minute dicussion which covered Syria's occupation of Lebanon, preventing Syrian and Iranian expansion, preventing arms sales to Iran by foreign countries, increasing Iraqi oil production via a possible new oil pipeline across Jordan.

Not mentioned was Iraqi production and use of chemical weapons. The Iranian government had cited several Iraqi air and ground chemical weapons attacks in the preceding two months, and the Iranian news agency had reported the use of chemical weapons as early as 1981. The US State Department first condemned the use of chemical weapons in the war on March 5, 1984, two days before the ICRC confirmed Iranian allegations.

Rumsfeld's civic activities included service as a member of the National Academy of Public Administration and a member of the boards of trustees of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the National Park Foundation. He was also a member of the U.S./Russia Business Forum and Chairman of the Congressional Leadership's National Security Advisory Group.

In 1977, Rumsfeld was awarded the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Rumsfeld was active in the Project for the New American Century, which in September 2000 proposed to invade Iraq.

As Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld's actions have been characterized by his aggressive personality, outspoken opinions, and unique sense of humor. His press conferences are frequent, and the Secretary has developed a strong love-hate relationship with many American reporters.

Due to the stance of the German and French governments against a war in Iraq, Rumsfeld labeled these countries as part of "Old Europe" (implying that those European countries which supported the war effort were part of a newer, modern Europe). In separate remarks, he named the countries which would not be willing to support the war effort at all as Cuba, Libya and Germany. Both remarks were regarded as offensive by the respective governments. On February 27, 2003, Spanish prime minister José María Aznar personally requested of George W. Bush that he discourage Rumsfeld from speaking about European defense policy because his remarks were so widely perceived as counterproductive and inflammatory. Aznar indicated that Colin Powell would be better perceived.

The BBC Radio 4 current affairs program Broadcasting House had been so taken by Rumsfeld's various remarks that it once held a regular slot called "The Donald Rumsfeld Soundbite of the Week" in which they played his most amusing comment from that week. Rumsfeld himself is said to have found the slot "hilarious".

Quotes

• "As we know, / There are known knowns. / 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." -- February 12, 2002, from a Department of Defense news briefing and sometimes set satirically as a poem—awarded 2003 ‘Foot in Mouth’ prize by Plain English Campaign[2]
• We know where [the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." (Stephanopoulos -- March 30, 2003)
• "Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not." -- September 11, 2001 at the National Military Command Center quoted in notes taken by aides, as reported on CBS News

Henry Kissinger is reputed to have said "Donald Rumsfeld is the most ruthless man I have ever met... and I mean that as a compliment."[3]

References

• Broadcasting House's "Donald Rumsfeld Library of Quotations"
• Govt. Bio. of Rumsfeld
• The Saddam in Rumsfeld's Closet, Jeremy Scahill
• Crude Vision: How Oil Interests Obscured US Government Focus On Chemical Weapons Use by Saddam Hussein, Institute for Policy Studies, March 24, 2003
• This Week with George Stephanopoulos by George Stephanopoulos (March 30, 2003)