Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician and government official who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under George W. Bush. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a U.S. Representative from Illinois (1963–1969) and the White House Chief of Staff (1974–1975), with some other roles inbetween. Between his terms as secretary of defense, he was also a businessman who served as the CEO and chairman of several companies.
After graduating from Princeton, where he was captain of the varsity lightweight footballnote team, he served in the U.S. Navy for three years and then mounted a campaign for Congress in Illinois's 13th Congressional District, winning in 1962 at the age of 30. While in Congress, he was a leading co-sponsor of the Freedom of Information Act. Rumsfeld accepted an appointment by President Richard Nixon to head the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1969, and was appointed counsellor by Nixon and entitled to Cabinet-level status before being appointed ambassador to NATO. Called back to Washington in August 1974, Rumsfeld was appointed chief of staff by President Ford. Rumsfeld recruited a young one-time staffer of his, Dick Cheney, to succeed him when Ford nominated him to be Secretary of Defense in 1975. When Ford lost the 1976 election, Rumsfeld returned to private business and financial life.
Rumsfeld was appointed Secretary of Defense for a second time in January 2001 by President George W. Bush. Interestingly, his appointment as secretary of defense under Ford made him the youngest SOD, while his appointment under Bush Jr. made him also the oldest. As Bush's Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld played a central role in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Before and during the Iraq War, he claimed that Iraq had an active weapons of mass destruction program, in particular immortalized in his famous phrase "there are known knowns; […] there are known unknowns. […] But there are also unknown unknowns." in a press conference at the Pentagon on February 12, 2002 (to the point that he titled his 2011 memoir Known and Unknown); however, no stockpiles were ever found. Rumsfeld's tenure was also controversial for its use of torture and the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. Rumsfeld gradually lost political support and resigned in late 2006.
He died on June 29, 2021 from multiple myeloma, at the age of 88.
Books he has written
- Strategic Imperatives in East Asia (1998)
- Known and Unknown: A Memoir (2011)
- Rumsfeld's Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life (2013)
- When the Center Held: Gerald Ford and the Rescue of the American Presidency (2018)
Media
Film- Fahrenheit 9/11: Appears As Himself; understandable given its subject matter. He famously "won" a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his appearance.
- DC 9/11: Time of Crisis: He is played by John Cunningham.
- W.: He is portrayed by Scott Glenn.
- Vice (2018): He is played by Steve Carell.
Live-Action TV
- The West Wing: Rumsfeld is mentioned in "The Short List" (only the ninth episode of the series, aired on November 1999) as one of the great White House staffers in reference to his role in the Nixon and Ford administrations (admittedly by a Republican character). Noticeable in that it predates his controversial tenure as Defense Secretary during the George W. Bush administration.
- Saturday Night Live: Darrell Hammond played him numerous times during the Bush Administration, in particular lampooning his idiosyncratic press conferences.
- ADA Casey Novak of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit subpoenas him in one episode. He doesn't actually appear, but the fact that she — a relatively lowly Manhattan Assistant District Attorney — subpoena'd the then-sitting United States Secretary of Defense gets her some serious badass points with her colleagues.
Literature
- In The Mirage he is the head of a Resistance movement fighting against the UAS .
Web Original
- He seems to be a favorite recurring character in Alternate History stories published on the web, especially on AlternateHistory.com.
- The Catherverse, a three-thread alternate timeline story on AlternateHistory.com set in an alternate 2015 world where North America is divided in several countries, Rumsfeld is stated to have been the president of the Industrial Republic of North America (IRNA).
- Icarus Falls, whose point of divergence is Richard Nixon being fatally struck by a car on October 28, 1967, has Rumsfeld attempting a coup against President Bush rather than working on his cabinet.
- No W, whose point of divergence is George W. Bush dying in a car accident on August 1, 2000, has Rumsfeld serving on President Rick Santorum's cabinet instead, before quitting in protest over the administration's increasingly authoritarian measures and fleeing to Canada.
- In Rumsfeldia: Fear and Loathing in the Decades of Tears, a sequel to Fear, Loathing and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail '72, Donald Rumsfeld becomes the President of the United States in the 1980s. He quickly becomes a tyrant that transforms America into a brutal theocracy.
Videogames
- In Red World he's the President of the American Republic, a failing warlord state claiming to be the successor to the USA.
Western Animation
- The Boondocks has a character named Gin Rummy, a former soldier and laughably incompetent criminal, who works together with Ed Wuncler III. In his introductory episode, him and Wuncler, supposedly trying to catch a murderer, start holding up a convenience store. When questioned about it, he starts rambling about "known unknowns."
- Lil' Bush: As one can guess from the title, it also includes a "Lil' Rummy."
