page_title: Known and Unknown: A Memoir
section_title: Book contents
hierarchical_section_title: Known and Unknown: A Memoir / Book contents
caption_attribution_description: English: President George W. Bush shakes the hand of outgoing Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006, in the Oval Office where the President announced the Secretary's resignation and his intention to nominate Dr. Robert Gates as successor.
context_page_description: Known and Unknown: A Memoir is an autobiographical book by Donald Rumsfeld, an American politician and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 and again from 2001 to 2006. He published it through Penguin Group USA in February 2011. It covers a variety of his experiences such as working as a Republican in the U.S. House in the late-1960s, serving in the Ford Administration during the Watergate and Vietnam crises, and serving during the George W. Bush Administration through the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay scandals.
  Rumsfeld makes a variety of statements about his positions meant to, in his view, correct the record. For example, he states that he always opposed using waterboarding during interrogations, and he argues that the Abu Ghraib detainee abuse scandal constituted one of his biggest personal regrets. He recounts having delivered his resignation but that the president didn't accept it, with Rumsfeld writing that his failure to demand being released from his job "was a misjudgment".
context_section_description: The cover depicts Rumsfeld during a get-away trip to Taos, which journalist Ben Smith has suggested conveys the notion of being "detached from the Beltway". Rumsfeld begins the book by recounting his famous 1983 meeting with Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. He recalls that Hussein said that the nation of France "understood the Iraqi view". Rumsfeld writes, "That particular remark came to my mind on more than one occasion and I never had cause to doubt it." He states that Hussein came across as "rather reasonable". However, he reports that Hussein repeated word for word a line Rumsfeld had used the day before in another meeting— leading Rumsfeld to conclude that he was bugged.
  Rumsfeld recounts his childhood, with his ex-military father making a living selling real estate near Chicago, Illinois. He discusses becoming an Eagle Scout, wrestling in high-school, and then serving in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps to help him get through college. He also mentions, after graduation, his tour as a naval aviator and marrying his high school sweetheart.
  He recalls heading back to his native Chicago and being elected to the U.S. House in 1962—only at age 29. He notes voting for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. As the Vietnam War drags on, he describes growing dissatisfied with the Johnson administration's policy—particularly the use of drafted soldiers and the expansion of troop levels on the ground. Rumsfeld discusses his advocacy of "Vietnamization", which he tries to implement under President Nixon. He calls the South Vietnamese's regime's final collapse as the fault of Congress, and he views the final outcome as a "withdrawal" and "retreat".
  Rumsfeld recalls how his career led him and his wife to develop a lifetime friendship with media and entertainment personality Sammy Davis, Jr. He recounts visiting Redskins games and becoming a huge fan of Elvis Presley. Rumsfeld reveals that, backstage in a Las Vegas concert late one night, Presley pulled him aside to express thanks to the U.S. armed forces. Rumsfeld writes that "patriots can be found anywhere".
  He details his four decade long friendship and alliance with Dick Cheney. Rumsfeld recounts, serving as President Gerald Ford's chief of staff, bringing in Cheney as an assistant to the president. He states that Cheney has been a sort of doppelgänger due to, among other reasons, their mutual Ivy League background and mutual success as major corporate CEOs.
  Rumsfeld recalls his service as President Ronald Reagan's Middle East envoy at the time that U.S. pulled out of Lebanon. He states that the situation and its aftermath showed him that American weakness (whether real or merely perceived) is provocative. He describes developing a strategic perspective that U.S. foreign policy should be "forward-leaning".
  He criticizes Secretary of State Colin Powell for promoting the decision taken by President George H. W. Bush not to remove Saddam Hussein from power after the 1991 Gulf War. He flatly takes the opposite view. Rumsfeld additionally describes Powell as the representative of State Department views to Bush rather than the other way around.
  Rumsfeld recounts his distance from George H. W. Bush during the Ford and Reagan administrations, which ranged from differences in opinion for appointments and political endorsements as well as personal differences. He describes himself as skeptical of the experiences of "those who enjoy the inherited benefit of prominent names." However, he ends up forging a close relationship with George W. Bush. Rumsfeld labels the younger Bush "decidedly down-to-earth, with no inclination to formality" with a "demeanor... different from his father's somewhat patrician manner."
  He details his efforts to move the Defense Department away from its traditional emphasis on expensive, long-standing weapons systems towards a system based on lighter, mobile, and autonomous forces. He recounts his turf disputes that came up while enacting reforms. The dramatics over canceling the $11 billion Crusader artillery platform are highlight
caption: Rumsfeld shakes President Bush's hand as he announces his resignation in November 2006.
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