Rumsfeld was a secretary of defense under President George W. Bush, 2001-2006, who played a major, and often controversial, role in shaping U.S. security policy in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Donald Henry Rumsfeld was born in Chicago. He graduated from Princeton University in 1954 and then entered the navy, serving as a pilot and flight instructor. He was discharged from active duty in 1957, but remained in the Naval Reserve until 1989, when he retired with the rank of captain.

After leaving the active navy, Rumsfeld launched a political career, taking a job as a congressional aide. In 1962, Rumsfeld successfully campaigned for a seat from Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served in the House until 1969 and developed a reputation as a moderate Republican with an interest in defense issues and a supporter of civil rights legislation. After Richard M. Nixon was elected president, he made Rumsfeld the director of the Office of Economic Opportunity; as his deputy, Rumsfeld chose future vice president Richard B. Cheney. In 1974, Rumsfeld was appointed as the U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.  After Nixon's resignation, President Gerald R. Ford asked Rumsfeld to chair his transition team. He then became White House chief of staff in 1974 and secretary of defense in 1975. As secretary, Rumsfeld sought to shift spending to the development of new weapons systems such as the B-1 bomber and the MX missile. Following Ford's defeat in the 1976 election, Rumsfeld left office and taught at Princeton University and then Northwestern University. He later had a successful business career. During the administration of Ronald W. Reagan, Rumsfeld was appointed to a number of advisory posts and served as an envoy to the Middle East in 1983.

In January 2001, on Cheney's advice, Bush appointed Rumsfeld secretary of defense. Rumsfeld thus became both the youngest and oldest person appointed to head the Department of Defense. Rumsfeld entered office with plans to transform the military to leaner, more flexible force structures that would allow for rapid deployments in response to regional crises. To accomplish this objective, he worked to cancel several Cold War--era weapons systems, including the Comanche helicopter and the Crusader self-propelled artillery piece. He also initiated the redeployment of American forces from bases created during the Cold War in a policy that mirrored the consolidation of defense facilities in the United States. Bush's decision to withdraw from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty led Rumsfeld to reorient U.S. strategic forces and emphasize ballistic missile defense.

Rumsfeld was in the Pentagon during the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on the building. He played a major role in formulating the military response to the attacks. Rumsfeld oversaw the deployment of U.S. and coalition forces and the planning for the Afghanistan intervention and overthrow of the Taliban regime. The U.S. strategy emphasized the use of special operations troops and the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, along with strategic and tactical air strikes. Coalition military action began in October 2001, and by December the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies had been defeated. Rumsfeld was praised for the overall conduct of the war, but faced criticism for the failure to capture Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar. The secretary's strategy, which came to be informally known as the Rumsfeld Doctrine, called for the use of the smallest force possible, accompanied by massive air power and the use of precision-guided weaponry. Central to the success of Rumsfeld's strategy was the use of sophisticated technology and network-centric warfare.

The secretary was a staunch supporter of military action against Iraq. He believed that the removal of the regime of Saddam Hussein was the next logical step in the administration's global war on terror. In planning for the Iraq War, Rumsfeld envisioned a two-front campaign with a southern front from bases in Kuwait and a northern front from Turkey. However, domestic opposition in Turkey ruled out the northern front, forcing Rumsfeld to rapidly alter his plans and launch the invasion with a smaller force (some 140,000 troops, instead of the planned 230,000). Nonetheless, the U.S.-led coalition quickly overran Iraq and toppled Saddam. Within a month of the start of hostilities, American troops occupied Baghdad. In December 2003, Saddam was captured by the Americans.

Rumsfeld again received accolades for the rapid victory. However, he was criticized for the lack of postwar planning and the subsequent rise of the Iraqi insurgency. The inability of the U.S.-led coalition to contain the insurgency added to questions over the secretary's management of the conflict. During the 2004 presidential election, there were calls among senior Republicans for Rumsfeld to resign. Bush rejected these calls and kept Rumsfeld as defense chief at the start of his second term. However, following the 2006 midterm elections in which the Republican Party lost control of both chambers of Congress, Rumsfeld announced his resignation and left office in December 2006.

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