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Donald Henry Rumsfeld 1932–, American government official, b. Chicago, grad. Princeton (B.A.). A Republican with a reputation as a skilled political infighter, he was a U.S. congressman from Illinois from 1963 to 1969, when he resigned to become director of the Office of Economic Opportunity in the Nixon administration. Rumsfeld also served as U.S. ambassador to NATO (1971–73) under President Richard Nixon and later as President Gerald Ford's White House chief of staff (1974–75). In 1975, Rumsfeld was appointed secretary of defense; in that office he attempted to increase the military budget and deal with various problems of the troubled post–Vietnam War era. After 1977 he worked as a corporate executive until he was named President Ronald Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East (1983–84); he subsequently returned to the private sector. In 2000, a quarter century after he first served as secretary of defense, he was appointed again to the office by newly elected President George W. Bush. As defense secretary Rumsfeld has become noted for his blunt, sometimes undiplomatic public comments and statements, some of which have alienated American allies. He is an advocate of a national ballistic missile defense shield.
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