Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and a one-time presidential candidate whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern US military was unraveled by the long and costly Iraq war, died Tuesday. He was 88.
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In a statement Wednesday, Rumsfeld's family said he "was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico."
President George W. Bush, under whom Rumsfeld served as Pentagon chief, hailed his "steady service as a wartime secretary of defense – a duty he carried out with strength, skill, and honor."
Regarded by former colleagues as equally smart and combative, patriotic and politically cunning, Rumsfeld had a storied career in government under four presidents and nearly a quarter-century in corporate America.
After retiring in 2008 he headed the Rumsfeld Foundation to promote public service and to work with charities that provide services and support for military families and wounded veterans.
