"... The finest secretary of defense this nation has ever had."
- US Vice President Dick Cheney

"The past was not predictable when it started."
- Donald Rumsfeld


On a farewell flight to Baghdad in early December, the departing US secretary of defense reminisced about his start in politics more than 40 years before. Aides leaned in to listen intently, but came away with no memorable revelations. It hardly mattered. As usual with this man who dominated government as no US cabinet officer before him - including the power-ravenous Henry Kissinger he so despised and outdid in effect, if not celebrity - authentic history and Don Rumsfeld's version of it bore little resemblance.

There was portent in those beginnings. He came out of an affluent Chicago suburb in the 1950s with brusque confidence and usable contacts at Princeton, among them Frank Carlucci, a future defense secretary of mediocre mind, yet the iron conceit and shrewd fealty far more effectual in government than intellect or sensibility. After college and two years as a US Navy pilot, Rumsfeld did politic stints as a Capitol Hill intern and Republican campaign aide, and by age 29, back in Chicago in investment banking, was running for Congress.

As with much to come, a darker thread lay beneath the surface from the start. In a Republican primary tantamount to election, he was outwardly the boyish, speak-no-evil, underfunded, underdog challenger of an old party stalwart set to inherit the open seat. In fact, he was generously financed by wealthy friends, while his operatives - including Jeb Stuart Magruder of later Watergate infamy - furtively harried and smeared his opponent, using tactics never traced to Rumsfeld.

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Much more here:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/IB16Aa01.html