Originally written in 1998

Reexamined and reiterated on December 28, 2000

Updated on August 26, 2001

Don Rumsfeld today annotation of December 12, 2001

I knew Donald Rumsfeld in a multitude of positions.

I knew him as a Congressman, as Secretary of Defense, as Assistant to the President, Director of the Cost of Living Council,White House Chief of Staff and as Chairman and CEO of the now gone G.D. Searle & Company, Inc.

He is a most handsome man with a sardonic smile on his face. He says little which keeps him out of trouble. He has the most knowing look of any man I ever met, and what was behind that look I never did find out!!

He is now chairman of "The Hoover Institution" which has a great many fine people on its staff, including Martin Anderson (about whom you can read in this series at :http:ma.html.).

They, incidentally, totally failed to foresee the fall of the Soviet Union. One of their august associates misinformed the New York Times not very long ago (which reported it with great glee) that no one had foreseen the fall of the Soviet Union. He must have been jealous of or disliked George Shultz. The Hoover institution associate was dead wrong because George Shultz and others in the Department of State certainly did foresee it along with myself !

"Rummy", as he was called by most that knew him, never seemed to have any opinions about anything but when he did express what he thought it was always non-controversial and middle of the road.

In all of the years that I knew him (about 14) I never did find out what he thought about anything of any importance. He would give you answers to questions but they were always the safest of safe answers.

I interviewed him for a TV series I was doing entitled "How Cabinet Officers Make Decisions" and the interview with him was the worst from the viewpoint of learning anything! The best, incidentally was John B. Connally who called it straight and from the shoulder. But you can read about John B (as he was known) on the same site as for all these people I have known, see:http:jc.html.

Handsome, charming, sophisticated,well mannered and an endearing but whimsical smile all portray Rumsfeld accurately.

But he was also a Sphinx. What he contributed to the United States all the years he played in politics is beyond me. He is the perfect example of the absolutely perfect cover with very little inside.

Or at least that is the way I knew him over the years.

What substance he had is anybody's guess and that might be unfair about him.

But in all those years I never felt there was much there, and he held some of the highest positions of the land. That tells you a great deal about why and how the government is so fouled up. It does not attract the best and the brightest but mainly only those who think they are, but too frequently, aren't.

You might be interested in the following write up about GD Searle and what Rummy had to do with the investigation of aspartame. I have no idea or opinion about the accuracy or lack of accuracy of this report but present it here for information purposes only.

http://www.cco.net/~trufax/research/f29.html

Washington, Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Soon after becoming U.S. defense secretary in January, Donald Rumsfeld sold a stake in a partnership that helped finance an operating system designed to protect Chinese computers from spying and sabotage.

Rumsfeld's investment in Chengwei Ventures Fund I, valued between $250,000 and $500,000, was one of his 29 non-publicly traded holdings earmarked by U.S. ethics officials as requiring disposal to avoid conflicts of interest, filings showed."

I have watched with enormous interest the press briefings of Don Rumsfeld as well as the execution of the war against Afghanistan. I am impressed and admire the way he handles himself and the way he handles the press. There is no question that he appears to be doing a superb job (but, of course we only see the cover [true of all history] ).

I have been asked (by Pentagon people) if I would withdraw my write up about him. That write up was about the Don Rumsfeld I knew in the Nixon years (and later) and was, of course, prior to his current term as Secretary of Defense. My answer to those who asked the question, in the most polite and civil way, was No.

I do not believe in rewriting history on the basis of present facts or impressions. History is history and the passage of time does not change much except to make information more or less available (depending on the circumstances).

Don Rumsfeld appears to be doing a superb job for himself and for his country. I am grateful for that.

All my write ups about the people I have known in high places were based on my personal knowledge of them in action. I am now out of the loop and, therefore, have no intimate or appropriate knowledge of them any longer. I, therefore, stick with what I wrote earlier on.

Touch here to return to the list of people I have known: