Donald Rumsfeld

Donald H. Rumsfeld was both the youngest person to serve as U.S. Secretary of Defense, in the Administration (1975-1977), and the oldest, in the George W. Bush Administration (2001-2008). He was among the most active and controversial Secretaries, especially directing the U.S. military after the 9-11 attack. After the 2008 Presidential election, he was replaced by his deputy, Robert Gates, who has continued as secretary in the Obama Administration.

Bush Administration

As Secretary of Defense, he was, with the President, the National Command Authority, in the direct line of command for to the Unified Combatant Commands created by the Goldwater-Nichols Act.

Within the Administration, he was one of several key decisionmakers on national security, who sometimes fought over authority, including Vice-President Dick Cheney and White House advisers, as well as the first Bush Administration U.S. Secretary of State, retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell.

Strategic view

Before taking office, Rumsfeld had recommended regime change in Iraq.

He was concerned with what has been called "lawfare", or the "judicialization of international politics", which, according to Jack Goldsmith, a law professor and eventually Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, was a "potentially powerful check on American military power." Goldsmith, who shared the concern, came to the Department of Defense as Special Counsel.

Intelligence

Rumsfeld tended to be distrustful of the United States intelligence community, especially the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1998, he chaired the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States, which took the position that the intelligence community took too much of a Cold War view, and did not give sufficient concern to rogue states. In more than one case, he preferred a "top-down" approach to intelligence: begin with his best impression of the likely policy of an adversary, and then look for evidence to support that hypothesis. This approach has, indeed, been useful as a check on conventional intelligence analysis, but it can also distort a view, if the assumption is also made that the absence of evidence for a hypothesis does not disprove the hypothesis. Proponents of the "absence of evidence" approach, however, point out that the adversary is often deliberately secret, and worst-case thinking can be prudent.

He created the Office of Special Plans, under Douglas Feith, specifically to make independent assessments of unprocessed intelligence reports.

9-11 attack

Rumsfeld was in the Pentagon Building when it was hit by American Airlines Flight 77. His immediate reaction was to rush to the crash site and assist in rescue efforts; his security staff insisted he go to a command post, but he insisted in staying in the building, sending a deputy to a secure facility.

Transformation

One of his major thrusts was making the military smaller, lighter and more flexible, within a general framework that has been called the "revolution in military affairs", or, in his preferred term, "transformation". Some of his reforms were effective and some were not. He

“put special emphasis on the importance of more horizontal, decentralized structures that share and leverage the information necessary for effective and timely decision-making, as opposed to the bureaucratic stovepiping that dominated U.S. national security institutions during the Cold War

The restructuring of the United States Army from organization around divisions to smaller brigades was very much part of this.

His emphasis was very much on high technology, including some that pushed the state of the art, the budget, or both, such as the Army's Future Combat Systems and the Air Force's F-22 Raptor, two programs that have been cut back by his successor. Part of the cuts had to do with paying for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was a very strong advocate of special operations, although he tended to overemphasize the direct action and direct support to foreign forces, rather than their longer-term training and force development roles.

Management style

Many considered him a micromanager, or at least very concerned with being in control. GEN Tommy Franks, the commander in the Middle East on 9-11, who had a sometimes stormy relationship that, on balance, he considered positive. At his initial meeting, with the Unified Combatant Commanders in February 2001, Franks observed that Rumsfeld listened more than talked, but "imparted authority." Franks thought "Rumsfeld knows what he wants. The rest of us will know soon enough." Franks found him extremely impatient over the delays in putting special operations forces into Afghanistan, after the bombing had started on October 7, to the point, a week later at which he asked Rumsfeld to select a new commander if Rumsfeld had lost confidence in him,

Industry

From 1977 to 1985 he served as Chief Executive Officer, President, and then Chairman of G.D. Searle & Co., a worldwide pharmaceutical company. 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.

Mr. Rumsfeld served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Instrument Corporation from 1990 to 1993. General Instrument Corporation was a leader in broadband transmission, distribution, and access control technologies. Until being sworn in as the 21st Secretary of Defense, Mr. Rumsfeld served as Chairman of the Board of Gilead Sciences, Inc., a pharmaceutical company.

Advisory roles

Before returning for his second tour as Secretary of Defense, Mr. Rumsfeld chaired the bipartisan U.S. Ballistic Missile Threat Commission, in 1998, and the U.S. Commission to Assess National Security Space Management and Organization, in 2000.

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

• Member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control (1982 - 1986);
• Special Presidential Envoy on the Law of the Sea Treaty (1982 - 1983);
• Senior Advisor to the President's Panel on Strategic Systems (1983 - 1984);
• Member of the U.S. Joint Advisory Commission on U.S./Japan Relations (1983 - 1984);
• Special Presidential Envoy to the Middle East (1983 - 1984);
• Member of the National Commission on 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); and
• Member of the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission (1999 - 2000).

Civic roles

While in the private sector, Mr. 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 Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the National Park Foundation, and as Chairman of the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships, Inc.

Ford Administration

In August 1974, he was called back to Washington, DC, to serve as Chairman of the transition to the Presidency of Gerald R. Ford. He then became Chief of Staff of the White House and a member of the President's Cabinet (1974-1975). He served as the 13th U.S. Secretary of Defense, the youngest in the country's history (1975-1977). In 1977, Mr. Rumsfeld was awarded the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Entry to politics

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.

During his fourth term, Rumsfeld resigned from Congress to join the Nixon Administration. From 1969 to 1970, he served as Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity and Assistant to the President.

From 1971 to 1972, he was Counsellor to the President and Director of the Economic Stabilization Program. According to a recording between Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and H.R. Haldeman, Nixon was considering firing Rumsfeld from the White House staff, as the center of a group of internal antiwar advocates.

In 1973, he left Washington, DC, to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium (1973-1974). As a consequence, he was not associated with the Watergate activities, but he had a closer relationship with Nixon than was generally realized. Nixon respected him as the only senior staff member that had ever run for elective office.

Early career

He attended Princeton University on academic and NROTC scholarships (A.B., 1954) and served in the U.S. Navy (1954-57) as an aviator and flight instructor on the S-2 Tracker maritime patrol aircraft. In 1957, he transferred to the Ready Reserve and continued his Naval service in flying and administrative assignments as a drilling reservist until 1975. He transferred to the Standby Reserve when he became Secretary of Defense in 1975 and to the Retired Reserve with the rank of Captain in 1989.

In 1957, he came to Washington, DC to serve as Administrative Assistant to a Congressman, and then worked in investment banking.