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Donald Rumsfeld Quotes

Donald Henry Rumsfeld is a retired American political figure and businessman. Rumsfeld served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the second-oldest person to have served as Secretary of Defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a three-term U.S. Congressman from Illinois , Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity , Counsellor to the President , the United States Permanent Representative to NATO , and White House Chief of Staff . Between his terms as Secretary of Defense, he was a highly successful businessman, serving as the CEO and chairman of several companies.

Born in Illinois, Rumsfeld attended Princeton University, graduating in 1954 with a degree in political science. After serving in the Navy for three years, he mounted a campaign for Congress in Illinois' 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 reluctantly accepted an appointment by President Richard Nixon to head the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1969; appointed Counsellor by Nixon and entitled to Cabinet-level status, he would also head up the Economic Stabilization Program 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 life, and was named president and CEO of the pharmaceutical corporation G. D. Searle & Company. He was later named CEO of General Instrument from 1990 to 1993, and chairman of Gilead Sciences from 1997 to 2001.

Rumsfeld was appointed Secretary of Defense for a second time in January 2001 by President George W. Bush. During his tenure he aimed to modernize and restructure the U.S. military for the 21st century. Rumsfeld played a central role in the planning of the United States' response to the September 11 attacks, which included two wars, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. In addition to war strategy, Rumsfeld's tenure became highly controversial for the use of torture as well as the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. Rumsfeld gradually lost political support and he resigned in late 2006.

Rumsfeld was known in media circles for his outspokenness and candor. In his retirement years, he published an autobiography Known and Unknown: A Memoir as well as Rumsfeld's Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life. He is involved with the Rumsfeld Foundation's Fellowship program, which has advisors at dozens of universities across the United States, and supports several military-related causes.

✵ 9. July 1932
Donald Rumsfeld photo
Donald Rumsfeld: 38   quotes 0   likes

Famous Donald Rumsfeld Quotes

“It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Rumsfeld's Rules" January 12, 1974 http://library.villanova.edu/vbl/bweb/rumsfeldsrules.pdf
1970s

“Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.”

Donald Rumsfeld

"Rumsfeld's Rules" January 12, 1974 http://library.villanova.edu/vbl/bweb/rumsfeldsrules.pdf
1970s

“…it seems to me that it's up to all of us to try to tell the truth, to say what we know, to say what we don't know, and recognize that we're dealing with people that are perfectly willing to, to lie to the world to attempt to further their case and to the extent people lie of, ultimately they are caught lying and they lose their credibility and one would think it wouldn't take very long for that to happen dealing with people like this.”

Donald Rumsfeld

From the 2004 documentary film Control Room
2000s

“Pieces of intelligence, scraps of intelligence…you run down leads and you run down leads, and you hope that sometimes it works.”

Donald Rumsfeld

DoD News Briefing May 01, 2002 http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=3424
2000s

“The natural state of man is to want to be free. To have opportunities. To have choices.”

Donald Rumsfeld

On Arab Spring, Rumsfeld, that he wasn't surprised by popular uprisings of Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/08/rumsfeld.interview/index.html March 9, 2011.
2010s

“It's a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy.”

Donald Rumsfeld

As quoted in The Chicago Tribune (13 April 1966)
1960s

Donald Rumsfeld Quotes about people

“We're so conditioned as a people to think that a military campaign has to be cruise missiles and television images of airplanes dropping bombs, and that's just false. This is a totally different war. We need a new vocabulary. We need to get rid of old think and start thinking about this thing the way it really is.”

Donald Rumsfeld

on CBS' Evening News, October 9, 2001 http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=2051
2000s

“And there is, I am certain, among the Iraqi people a respect for the care and the precision that went into the bombing campaign.”

Donald Rumsfeld

DoD News Briefing April 09, 2003 http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=2339
2000s

“You and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase immediate threat. I didn't, the president didn't. And it's become kind of folklore that that's what's happened.”

Donald Rumsfeld

CBS Face the Nation (14 March 2004) http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040314-secdef0542.html; in response Thomas Friedman quoted his previous statement from a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee (10 September 2002) http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/US/HearingsPreparedstatements/hasc-091802.htm:
:: But no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
2000s

“I picked up a newspaper today and I couldn't believe it. I read eight headlines that talked about chaos, violence, unrest. And it just was Henny Penny -- "The sky is falling." I've never seen anything like it! And here is a country that's being liberated, here are people who are going from being repressed and held under the thumb of a vicious dictator, and they're free. And all this newspaper could do, with eight or 10 headlines, they showed a man bleeding, a civilian, who they claimed we had shot —one thing after another.
From the very beginning, we were convinced that we would succeed, and that means that that regime would end. And we were convinced that as we went from the end of that regime to something other than that regime, there would be a period of transition. And, you cannot do everything instantaneously; it's never been done, everything instantaneously. We did, however, recognize that there was at least a chance of catastrophic success, if you will, to reverse the phrase, that you could in a given place or places have a victory that occurred well before reasonable people might have expected it, and that we needed to be ready for that; we needed to be ready with medicine, with food, with water. And, we have been.
Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here.”

Donald Rumsfeld

DOD news briefing following the fall of Baghdad (11 April 2003) http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030411-secdef0090.html

“Some might ask, how in the world could the Secretary of Defense attack the Pentagon in front of its people? To them I reply, Today, I have no desire to attack the Pentagon; I want to liberate it. We need to save it from itself.”

Donald Rumsfeld

2000s, Bureaucracy to Battlefield: 9/11 Speech, (September 11, 2001)

Donald Rumsfeld Quotes

“It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog.”

Donald Rumsfeld

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/10/22/sprj.irq.main/index.html
referring to the ongoing War on Terrorism
2000s

Way

“Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, or vice versa.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Department of Defense news briefing (12 February 2002)
Variant:
Now what is the message there? The message is that there are no "knowns." There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns.
:It sounds like a riddle. It isn't a riddle. It is a very serious, important matter.
:There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something exists does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist. And yet almost always, when we make our threat assessments, when we look at the world, we end up basing it on the first two pieces of that puzzle, rather than all three.
:* Extending on his earlier comments in a press conference at NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium (6 June 2002) http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2002/s020606g.htm
2000s

History , Country

“We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat….”

Donald Rumsfeld

Interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News This Week, March 30, 2003
Context: We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat.... I would also add, we saw from the air that there were dozens of trucks that went into that facility after the existence of it became public in the press and they moved things out. They dispersed them and took them away. So there may be nothing left. I don't know that. But it's way too soon to know. The exploitation is just starting.

“It recalls to mind the statement by Winston Churchill, something to the effect that: I have benefited greatly from criticism, and at no time have I suffered a lack thereof.”

Donald Rumsfeld

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110801579.html?nav=rss_politics
During the Nomination of Robert Gates for the next U.S. Secretary of Defense, November 8, 2006
2000s

Suffering , Time

“I suppose the implication of that is the president and the vice president and myself and Colin Powell just fell off a turnip truck to take these jobs.”

Donald Rumsfeld

In response to Jeffrey Goldberg's question to comment on accusations that the "Jewish lobby" maneuvered the administration into war. The New Republic, October 8, 2007. http://www.tnr.com/toc/story.html?id=523b5134-8643-4f5e-a314-ac9b8a786b16&p=13
2000s

“I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?”

Donald Rumsfeld

Written on a memo in reference to the treatment of Guantanamo prisoner and to the way he worked in his office as Secretary of Defense, 2002. Reported in The Washington Post, 24 June 2004. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A946-2004Jun23.html
2000s

“Let's hear it for the essential daily briefing, however hollow and empty it might be. We'll do it.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Meeting with Media Pool Bureau Chiefs October 18, 2001 http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2001/t10192001_t1018bc.html
2000s

“As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time. Since the Iraq conflict began, the Army has been pressing ahead to produce the armor necessary at a rate that they believe -- it's a greatly expanded rate from what existed previously, but a rate that they believe is the rate that is all that can be accomplished at this moment.”

Donald Rumsfeld

[Troops put Rumsfeld in the hot seat, http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/08/rumsfeld.kuwait/index.html, 2006-04-07, 2004-12-08, CNN]
Responding to the question "Now why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up armor our vehicles, and why don't we have those resources readily available to us?"
2000s

War , Time

“We do have a saying in America: if you're in a hole, stop digging ….. erm, I'm not sure I should have said that.”

Donald Rumsfeld

http://www.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,,1943315,00.html
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/09/24/schroeder.blair/index.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20030621143902/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s865620.htm
2000s

“And it is not knowable if force will be used, but if it is to be used, it is not knowable how long that conflict would last. It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”

Donald Rumsfeld

TownHall Meeting At Aviano Air Base in Italy (7 February 2003) https://web.archive.org/web/20070114160540/http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/t02072003_t0207sdtownhall.html
2000s

“I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks, or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Interview with Steve Croft, Infinity CBS Radio Connect (14 November 2002) https://web.archive.org/web/20031217182208/http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2002/t11152002_t1114rum.html
2000s

“Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often focus on how much money or effort is spent, rather than whether the money or effort actually achieves the announced goal.”

Donald Rumsfeld

"Rumsfeld's Rules" January 12, 1974 http://library.villanova.edu/vbl/bweb/rumsfeldsrules.pdf
1970s

Money , Effort

“I didn't advocate invasion…I wasn't asked.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Responding to George Stephanopoulos about whether he would have advocated an invasion of Iraq if he had known that no weapons of mass destruction would be found there, ABC News This Week, November 20, 2005 http://mediamatters.org/items/200511230004
2000s

“Well, so be it. Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Regards upcoming elections in Iraq http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1283005.htm, January 14, 2005.
2000s

Life , Perfection

“Oh, Lord. I didn't mean to say anything quotable.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Interview with Associated Press Friday, September 7, 2001 http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2001/t09102001_t0907ap.html
2000s

“What we are seeing is not the war in Iraq. What we're seeing is slices of the war in Iraq.”

Donald Rumsfeld

http://www.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,,1943315,00.html
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0303/21/se.14.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june03/warcoverage_3-22.html
2000s

War

“Now, you're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe.”

Donald Rumsfeld

As quoted in "Outrage at 'old Europe' remarks" in BBC News (23 January 2003) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2687403.stm
2000s

Thinking

“I shouldn't get into … this is diplomacy, and I don't do diplomacy.”

Donald Rumsfeld

http://www.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,,1943315,00.html
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0304/30/se.01.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/bh/rumsfeld.shtml
2000s

“I don't know what the facts are but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know, and that's a good thing.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Talking to reporters about whether President Bush knows about equipment inadequacies in Iraq http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=1985
2000s

“I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons.”

Donald Rumsfeld

At a hearing of the Senate's appropriations subcommittee on defense (14 May 2003)
2000s

“There will be good moments, and there will be less good moments.”

Donald Rumsfeld

April 7, 2004, in reference to the 2004 spring uprising in Iraq http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=2469
2000s

“Then there are three or four countries that have said they won't do anything. I believe Libya, Cuba and Germany are ones that have indicated they won't help in any respect.”

Donald Rumsfeld

"Threats And Responses: Germany; Rumsfeld Faces Tense Greeting and Antiwar Rallies in Munich" by Thom Shanker, in The New York Times (8 February 2003) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/08/world/threats-responses-germany-rumsfeld-faces-tense-greeting-antiwar-rallies-munich.html
2000s

Help , Country

“Those who follow orders to commit such crimes will be found and they will be punished. War crimes will be prosecuted. And it will be no excuse to say, 'I was just following orders.' Any official involved in such crimes will forfeit hope of amnesty or leniency with respect to past action.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Pentagon briefing, March 20, 2003 http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=2072
2000s

War , Hope , Past

“I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Interview with the Washington Post (9 January 2002) http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2002/t02052002_t0109wp.html
2000s

“[ Osama bin Laden is] either alive and well or alive and not too well or not alive.”

Donald Rumsfeld

DoD News Briefing October 07, 2002 http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=3786
2000s

“After he saw what happened to Saddam Hussein, he (Gaddafi) did not want to be Saddam Hussein. He gave up his nuclear program.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Rumsfeld doesn't support sending U.S. troops into Libya http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/08/rumsfeld.interview/index.html March 9, 2011.
2010s

“And the only way there’s going to be followers, is if the leader is doing things that have merit, that are persuasive to others. Why else would someone follow somebody if they didn’t think the individual was doing something worthwhile, going in the right direction?”

Donald Rumsfeld

As quoted in "My Date With Rummy: Now 84, The Former Secretary Of Defense Is As Wily As Ever" https://taskandpurpose.com/donald-rumsfeld-secretary-defense (12 June 2017), by Adam Linehan, Task & Purpose
2010s

Way , Thinking

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