Best Known As: Political Figure

Gist:  Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9, 1932) is a United States businessman, politician, the 13th Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and the 21st Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006. He is both the youngest (43 years old) and the oldest (74 years old) person to have held the position, as well as the only person to have held the position for two non-consecutive terms, and the second longest serving, behind Robert McNamara.

Rumsfeld was White House Chief of Staff during part of the Ford Administration, and also served in various positions in the Nixon Administration. He served four terms in the United States House of Representatives, and served as United States Ambassador to NATO. He was an aviator in the United States Navy between 1954 and 1957 before transferring to the Reserve. In public life, he has also served as an official in numerous federal commissions and councils.

Life Facts:  Rumsfeld married Joyce H. Pierson (born September 18, 1932) on December 27, 1954. They have three children and six grandchildren. Their three children are psychologist Valerie J. Rumsfeld Richard (born March 3, 1956), Marcy K. Rumsfeld Walczak (born March 28, 1960), and Internet entrepreneur Donald Nicholas "Nick" Rumsfeld (born June 26, 1967).

Rumsfeld lives in St. Michaels, Maryland, in a former plantation house, site of Frederick Douglass's breaking by Edward Covey.

*He is portrayed by actor Scott Glenn in Oliver Stone's film W., a biopic based on books about George W. Bush.

*The preteen version of Rumsfeld is a main character in the Comedy Central cartoon Lil' Bush{{cite news|url=

*Rumsfeld is famous in popular culture as the originator of the much-quoted phrase "unknown unknowns", which he used at a press conference while Secretary of Defense in the George W. Bush administration. Rumsfeld's quote is a paraphrasing of the Confucius quote recited by David Henry Thoreau in his famous book Walden of "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge."

*[ White House Biography]

*[ Department of Defense Biography]

*By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld by Bradley Graham (PublicAffairs, 2009) ISBN 978-1586484217

*Rumsfeld's War: The Untold Story of America's Anti-Terrorist Commander by Rowan Scarborough (Regnery Publishing, 2004) ISBN 0-89526-069-7

*Rumsfeld: A Personal Portrait by Midge Decter (Regan Books, 2003) ISBN 0-06-056091-6

*The Rumsfeld Way: The Leadership Wisdom of a Battle-Hardened Maverick by Jeffrey A. Krames (McGraw-Hill, 2002) ISBN 0-07-140641-7

*Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy by Andrew Cockburn (Scribners, 2007) ISBN 1-4165-3574-8

Career Facts:  In 1957, during the Eisenhower administration, he served as Administrative Assistant to David S. Dennison, Jr., a Congressman representing the 11th district of Ohio. In 1959, Rumsfeld then moved on to become a staff assistant to Congressman Robert P. Griffin of Michigan.

He then did a two-year stint with investment banking firm A. G. Becker from 1960 to 1962.



Rumsfeld sat on ABB's board from 1990 to 2001. ABB?based in Zürich, Switzerland?is a European engineering giant formed through the merger between ASEA of Sweden and Brown Boveri of Switzerland. In 2000 this company sold two light-water nuclear reactors to KEDO for installation in North Korea, as part of the 1994 agreed framework reached under President Bill Clinton.

The sale of the nuclear technology was a high-profile contract. ABB's then chief executive, Göran Lindahl, visited North Korea in November 1999 to announce ABB's "wide-ranging, long-term cooperation agreement" with the communist government. Rumsfeld's office said that the Secretary of Defense did not "recall it being brought before the board at any time." But ABB spokesman Björn Edlund told Fortune that "board members were informed about this project."