U.S. Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush (2001-2006);
previously served in that position from 1975-1977 under President Gerald Ford.
Was U.S. Congressman from Illinois (1963-1969)
Rumsfeld was once the All-Navy Wrestling Champion.
Having served as Secretary of Defense under both Gerald Ford (he was also chief of staff to that president in the mid-1970s) and 'George W.
Bush', Donald Rumsfeld has the distinction of being both the youngest
and the oldest Defense Secretary in U.S. history.
Resigned as Secretary of Defense on November 6, 2006. His resignation
was announced by President George W. Bush on November 8, 2006.
A member of the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, with Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz (all of whom joined George W. Bush's cabinet). This now-defunct think tank has been widely seen as the brains behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
His father was of German descent, with ancestry from a little town named Weyhe, located a little south of Bremen in Germany. His mother was of mostly English and some Irish descent. She had Colonial American roots.
Sent to Iraq on an official visit in 1983, where footage showed him greeted by Pres. Saddam Hussein. During the visit, he gifted Hussein a pair of spurs.
Son of George Donald Rumsfeld (b. Illinois, 10 October, 1904, d. September 1974), who worked in real estate, and wife Jeannette Kearsley Huster (b. Illinois, 27 May, 1903, d. 3 May, 1988).
