Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dies at 88 - family
Former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who led the nation into war in Afghanistan and Iraq during the presidency of George W Bush, has died at the age of 88 in New Mexico, his family announced Wednesday.
- World
- Agencies and A News
- Published Date: 10:40 | 30 June 2021
- Modified Date: 10:44 | 30 June 2021
Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern U.S. military was soiled by the long and costly Iraq war, died Tuesday, his family said in a statement. He was 88.
Regarded by former colleagues as equally smart and combative, patriotic and politically cunning, Rumsfeld had a storied career under four presidents and nearly a quarter-century in corporate America.
In 2001 he began his second tour as Pentagon chief under President George W. Bush, but his plan to "transform" the armed forces was overshadowed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He oversaw the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, where he was blamed for setbacks including the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and for being slow to recognize a violent insurgency.
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