Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dies at 88: NPR

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His family announced, Wednesday, the death of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, pictured in February 2011. Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption

Toggle caption Mark Wilson / Getty Images

His family announced, on Wednesday, the death of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who appeared in the photo in February 2011.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Donald Rumsfeld, a longtime military thinker and powerful Washington broker who twice served as Secretary of Defense, has died. He was 88 years old.

Rumsfeld’s family confirmed his death in a tweet on Twitter.

“It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman, devoted husband, father, grandfather and grandfather. At eighty-eight, he was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico.” Read the statement.

“History may remember him for his extraordinary accomplishments over six decades of public service, but for those who knew him so well and whose lives were changed forever as a result, we will remember his unwavering love for his wife, Joyce, family, and friends, and for bringing integrity to a life devoted to the homeland.”

Rumsfeld has the distinction of being the youngest and oldest person in the Department of Defense.

Known as a hawkish and neoconservative movement that found great momentum in the White House under George W. Bush, Rumsfeld is perhaps remembered as one of the main architects of the decades-old wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His strategy after 9/11 became one of the hallmarks of American foreign policy, and the bloody aftermath of the invasions of the 2000s left some to remember him as a skilled statesman, while others blamed these interventions as responsible for destabilizing the region and driving American soldiers into war. seemingly endless.

As the Iraq war rages on, US forces are embroiled in a scandal relating to the cruel treatment of Iraqi prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. Rumsfeld said afterwards that he offered to resign twice during that time, but that Bush “made that decision and said he wanted me to stay in office.”

His stance on the treatment of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay has also been scrutinized and criticized. A note detailing how prison interrogators forced prisoners to stand for 4 hours at a time, carried this handwritten note from Rumsfeld: “I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why do I stand?” [by prisoners] Limited to 4 hours? Dr”

Bush, under whom Rumsfeld served his second term of defense, mourned his old ally on Wednesday.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld ran into the Pentagon fire to aid the wounded and ensure the safety of survivors. For the next five years, he was in constant service as wartime Secretary of Defense—a duty to “carry out operations with strength, skill, and honor,” Bush said in a statement.

Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld watches President Bush speak of devastation at the Pentagon in Washington on September 12, 2001. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Hide caption

Toggle caption Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld watches President Bush talk about the destruction of the Pentagon in Washington on September 12, 2001.

Pablo Martinez Monceves / AP

“In a busy and purposeful life, Don Rumsfeld was a naval officer, a congressman, a prominent cabinet official in many departments, a respected merchant leader—and with his beloved wife, a co-founder of a charitable foundation. In life, he even became an applications developer. Throughout his life, he was Fun and loving, he cherished his family above all else. Laura and I regret when we learn of Don’s death, and send our deepest sympathies to Joyce and their children. We mourn an exemplary civil servant and a very kind man.”

Rumsfeld resigned as Secretary of Defense in 2006 as Americans expressed anger over the Iraq war, which quickly became a foreign policy stumbling block for the Bush administration.

Rumsfeld has largely stuck to his actions, though, in his 2011 memoirs and in his farewell notes to the Pentagon in 2006.

“Our enemies’ conclusion that the United States lacks the will or resolve to carry out our missions that require sacrifice and patience is every bit as dangerous as an imbalance in conventional military power,” he said. “It may be comforting to some to think of graceful exits from torments and, indeed, the ugliness of combat. But the enemy thinks differently.”

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