Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is dead. The Republican politician died with his family in Taos, New Mexico, the family said in a statement.
The history books would remember the extraordinary things Rumsfeld had accomplished in six decades in public office, but his family would remember his “unwavering love for his wife Joyce, family and friends, and the integrity” he had Spent all his life in the service of his country. Rumsfeld was 88 years old.
The Republican was head of the Pentagon from 2001 to 2006 under then-President George W. Bush and chief planner of the military operation in Iraq. Under ex-President Gerald Ford, Rumsfeld was the youngest defense secretary in US history from 1975 to 1977 – the oldest in the Bush cabinet at the time. In Rumsfeld’s second term, the US invasion of Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks also falls.
Former US President George W. Bush said in a statement on Rumsfeld and his death: “A time that confronted our country and our military with unprecedented challenges has also produced the best qualities of Foreign Minister Rumsfeld. He never shrank from difficult decisions and responsibilities.”
Rumsfeld had many critics. In 2007, former US Senator John McCain said of his party colleague that he would “go down in history as one of the worst defense ministers ever”. In connection with the war, Rumsfeld had resigned after a severe defeat by the Republicans in congressional elections.
In 2008, the US Senate accused Rumsfeld of joint responsibility for human rights violations in US detention camps. In particular, the scandal surrounding the prison in Abu Ghraib near Baghdad brought Rumsfeld into distress. Rumsfeld was also accused of having contributed to subsequent ill-treatment in 2002 by authorizing “aggressive interrogation techniques” for suspected terrorists in the US prison camp in Guantánamo in Cuba. After his political career, Rumsfeld switched to the private sector.