Editorial: Rumsfeld's legacy is uneven but includes much his native suburbs can take pride in
It may be said that, to modify the famous phrase from Shakespeare, some are born to public service, some achieve public service and some have public service thrust upon them. In many ways, it is the first of those paths that seems to chart Donald Rumsfeld's career in government.
From his earliest days as a 30-year-old Republican congressman from the Chicago suburbs, Rumsfeld became known as a hard-driving, personally charming yet intellectually contentious, unyielding independent thinker. An Eagle Scout and graduate of New Trier High School, he studied political science on scholarships and captained the wrestling and football teams at Princeton before joining the Navy to serve as a fighter pilot. He began his political career as a congressional aide but - handsome, outspoken and supremely self-confident - quickly got himself elected in 1962 to the first of four terms. In the midst of that last term, he would catch the eye of President Richard Nixon and take the helm of the Office of Economic Opportunity.
Over the course of the next 50 years, he would hold posts as NATO ambassador, White House chief of staff, special envoy to the Mideast and U.S. defense secretary for two separate administrations - the youngest person ever to hold the position when Gerald Ford appointed him and the oldest when George W. Bush brought him back into government after more than a decade and half as a successful business executive. Although his brief presidential ambitions never bore fruit, he was thought of throughout his political and private careers as ambitious and smart, to the point of wily when it served him.
Whether in government or private life, he was someone who got things done. Evaluating his legacy, however, is a more complicated and uneven matter.
As a congressman, he voted for the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and was a strong advocate for freedom of information laws. As Ford's chief of staff, he helped the nation weather the dark days following the disgrace and resignation of Richard Nixon. As Ford's defense secretary, he won high marks for reinvigorating and streamlining the department. But on his second tour in the role, he would become the architect of a disastrous Middle East policy involving an unnecessary war in Iraq and arguably the disruption of our early successes in Afghanistan.
How would he fare as a political force in today's world? It is hard to imagine the charismatic and assertive campaigner would not gain public attention, but at the same time, the Chicago suburbs of today are much different from the community Rumsfeld grew up in. In fact, in today's suburbs, Rumsfeld would have had a difficult time gaining political traction. Even Winnetka's representatives in the Illinois General Assembly are Democrats.
But there is much in our native son's commitment to public service that we in the suburbs can take pride in, not the least including his role helping Ford get the nation on solid footing after Nixon's departure. While he had no shortage of critics and political adversaries throughout his career, he conducted himself with dignity and sometimes disarming candor. Though the costs of his stubbornness cannot be ignored, he fought valiantly for causes he sincerely considered in the nation's best interest.
It was not a role into which he was unexpectedly thrust. Rather, it seems a natural extension of a life that sometimes pushed the limits of our democratic republic and always respected its foundations and goals.