Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense at the head of two wars, dies at 88

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His family announced, Wednesday, the death of Donald Rumsfeld, who charted an impressive path in Washington while serving under four presidents, but whose controversial legacy as Secretary of Defense during the Iraq War, died. He was 88 years old.

Rumsfeld, a confident adviser to power with a snappy style that made him admirer as well as foe, had a long and winding career in public life spanning five decades. He’s been a congressman and White House chief of staff, and he’s also had a successful career. But it was his second term as defense minister from 2001 to 2006 – during the most turbulent period of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – for which he became famous.

“It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman, husband, father, grandfather and 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 changed as a result, he will remember his unwavering love for his wife Joyce, family and friends, and the integrity he brought to a life devoted to the homeland.”

While his tenure as President Gerald Ford’s Secretary of Defense was dominated by lofty administrative challenges regarding America’s changing military direction, his role under President George W. Bush was very different—and defined in an instant.

ARLINGTON, VA – MARCH 7: US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (right) makes a gesture during a briefing with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, at the Pentagon on March 7, 2006 in Arlington, Virginia. Secretary of State Rumsfeld and General Peter Pace held a briefing on the war on terror and the recent violence in Iraq, including allegations that Iraq is approaching civil war. (Photo by Brendan Smialofsky/Getty Images) (Photo by Brendan Smialofsky/Getty Images)

On 9/11, just months into the Bush presidency, Rumsfeld was in his office on the E-Ring at the Pentagon. While observing the attacks on the Twin Towers in Manhattan, the Pentagon was hit by a third hijacked plane.

He once described: “I went out and there were little bits of metal scattered all over the lawn, smoke was coming up, and the flames were very visible and jumping out of the building.”

After the attacks, Rumsfeld was part of a high-profile effort, which also included Vice President Dick Cheney, to wage war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. But then their eyes turned to Iraq, where he and others insisted that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction. During the start of the war, it was his casual and sometimes stinging style that made press conferences events in themselves. He rode a wave of popularity and never accepted that the war would not go as his journalists publicly said.

But then things started to get worse – abuse of detainees by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison was exposed in 2004.

Rumsfeld began to blame the war in the South. Critics have said that the number of troops in the post-invasion period was insufficient and that post-invasion plans were insufficient.

When a young soldier at a town meeting asked him when they would get more armored vehicles, Rumsfeld said, “You know, you’re at war with the army you have—not the army you might want or want to have at a later time.”

With the number of casualties mounting and no weapons of mass destruction found, the press turned on him. When it became clear that the rebellion could not be ignored and the number of casualties was much greater than expected, he began to face pressure to resign. He resisted those calls until the 2006 midterms, when Democrats ousted Republicans from power in Congress. Bush replaced Rumsfeld with Robert Gates.

Former US President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld attend a ceremony commemorating the 18th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, on September 11, 2019, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Image source must read MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images) (Image must be read from MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)

The resignation marked the end of Rumsfeld’s long career in the public sphere, although he did not fade from public view – appearing in the media and writing Known and Unknown: A Memoir in 2011.

Rumsfeld’s political career began early in his life. Born in 1932 in Evanston, Illinois, he was an Eagle Scout and athlete who graduated from Princeton University. He served in the Navy as a naval pilot and flight instructor from 1954 to 1957, and later as an anti-submarine squadron commander in 1960. (Retired from the reserves as captain in 1989.)

But his love of politics seems to be, and in 1957, Rumsfeld went to work with Republican Representative Robert B. Griffin is from Illinois, and won his first election – to the US House of Representatives in 1962 – at the age of 30. On the home front, he had already started a family, as he married Joyce B. Pearson in 1953. They had three children, two daughters and a son.

Rumsfeld continued to represent Illinois’ 13th District for three more terms before resigning to serve 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 became defense ministers in subsequent administrations.

In 1973, Rumsfeld became ambassador to NATO, overseeing a number of Cold War matters ranging from the nuclear arms race to the conflict between Turkey and Cyprus. Nixon resigned in the scandal of 1974 and Rumsfeld was recalled to serve as President Ford’s interim chief, his chief of staff and then Secretary of Defense. He oversaw a post-Vietnam transition to an all-volunteer army while ramping up U.S. spending and arsenal. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.

Not everyone seemed to appreciate Rumsfeld’s time in Washington. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who sometimes clashed with Rumsfeld, once said it was “a special phenomenon in Washington: a skilled, full-time bureaucratic politician in whom ambition, ability, and substance seamlessly fuse.”

For the first time in a short stint in the private sector after Princeton, Rumsfeld left civil service and politics for the corporate world, heading global pharmaceutical company GD Searle & Co. , as well as General Instrument Corporation and the Gilead Science Council.

During this time he did not completely abandon Washington. He served on a number of National Committees and as envoy to the Middle East for President Ronald Reagan in 1983. During this time, on a trip to Baghdad, he met Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. They established relations in mutual opposition to Iran. Nearly 30 years later, Rumsfeld was using the full power of the US military to bring down Saddam instead.

Years later in his memoirs, Rumsfeld admitted that weapons of mass destruction had never been found and that errors had been made in pre-war assessments (he said he knew where they were at the time). He also apologized for his infamous “things happen” response when asked about the looting of antiquities in Baghdad in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 invasion.

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Rumsfeld returned to private life after his resignation, sat outside the subsequent Democratic administration, and wrote his memoirs. He also issued several of his papers at the time and made sporadic media appearances, remaining one of the most controversial figures of the war period.

Despite this, in February 2011, fellow conservative Republicans awarded Rumsfeld the “Defender of the Constitution Award” at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

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