Scope and Content Note
The papers of Donald Henry Rumsfeld (1932-2021) span the years 1888-2008, with the bulk of the material dating from 1963 to 2007. The collection focuses on Rumsfeld's public service in Congress and the White House, and as secretary of defense, United States ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, special presidential envoy to the Middle East, and chair of various public commissions. The papers also feature material relating to Rumsfeld's activities in the private sector including his executive positions and board memberships in corporate businesses and nonprofit organizations. The collection is arranged in two parts described below.
Part I
Part I of the papers spans the years 1935-1984, with the bulk of the material dating from Rumsfeld's election to Congress in 1962 to the end of his first tenure as secretary of defense in 1977. Part I is arranged in ten series: Congressional File , White House , North Atlantic Treaty Organization , Department of Defense , Speeches and Writings File , Miscellany , Classified , Sensitive Compartmented InformationSecret , Sensitive Compartmented InformationTop Secret , and Oversize .
The Congressional File , comprising nearly two-thirds of Part I, is arranged in ten subseries. The first of these subgroupings is the Alphabetical File containing carbon copies of Rumsfeld's outgoing letters ranging in scope from letters to the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives to responses to constituent inquiries. The location of related incoming correspondence is noted in the upper right-hand corner of the outgoing letters. The Campaign and Political File subseries features files from Rumsfeld's 1962, 1964, 1966, and 1968 campaigns as well as news clippings covering the 1969 special election to fill Rumsfeld's vacated seat. Other files in the subseries trace the evolution of Republican Party positions and leadership during the 1960s and indicate Rumsfeld's contributions to the process. Many of the files relate to the House Republican Conference, including Rumsfeld's membership on its Policy Committee, his campaign to preserve the Research and Planning Committee following Nixon's victory in 1968, and his work on the Latin America, Space and Aeronautics, and Urban Affairs task forces. Files pertaining to Rumsfeld's participation on Republican Paul Revere Panels and Truth Squads between 1963 and 1968, his role as a surrogate candidate for Richard M. Nixon in 1968, and his presence in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention document his involvement in national Republican Party politics. Investigative files on Lyndon B. Johnson's President's Club and allegations of influence peddling are included in the subseries.
The Committee File subseries holds material relating to Rumsfeld's membership on three Congressional committees: Government Operations, Joint Economic, and Science and Astronautics. The Government Operations Committee files document Rumsfeld's work in the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations and Government Information, in particular his participation in the creation of the Freedom of Information Act and in investigations into the United States Agency for International Development's nonmilitary spending in Vietnam that entailed a fact-finding trip to Vietnam in 1966. The Science and Astronautics Committee file primarily contains items related to the nation's space program. There is extensive material concerning the 1967 Apollo 204 accident as well as files on topics of special interest to Rumsfeld, including National Aeronautics and Space Administration safety programs and the military use of space technology.
The Departmental File and Illinois File subseries highlight constituent issues. The Department File documents casework handled by Rumsfeld's office. Included are letters from constituents requesting assistance or information from federal and state agencies and background material used by staff to answer inquiries. The Illinois File contains background information on Illinois politics in general and the Thirteenth Congressional District in particular. Featured are voter attitude polls by Media Facts, Inc., a national issue poll sent annually by Rumsfeld's office to residents of his district, questionnaires, voting statistics, maps, state reapportionment files, conference material from the Republican Leadership Conference organized biennially by Rumsfeld in his home district, and correspondence and appointment files from his district office.
The Legislative File subseries consists of bills introduced by Rumsfeld, a special issues file , a legislative subject file , and voting records . Rumsfeld's legislative initiatives are referenced in binders containing copies of bills introduced by him and in more extensive files pertaining to individual bills. The special issues file highlights legislation and issues of particular interest to Rumsfeld. Material documenting Rumsfeld's campaign for congressional reform includes his 1965 testimony before the Joint Committee on the Organization of the Congress. Files relating to his sponsorship of the Legislative Reorganization Act in 1968 and 1969 include working papers outlining a series of parliamentary tactics used by Rumsfeld and other House Republicans (Rumsfeld's Raiders) to dramatize the need for reform. Other legislative priorities featured in the file include Rumsfeld's support for the Freedom of Information Act and reform of the Selective Service System. Rumsfeld's votes and positions on civil rights, Congress's role in foreign policy, the Office of Economic Opportunity, Vietnam, and other domestic and foreign affairs issues are documented as well.
A subject file in the Legislative File subseries covers legislative issues handled by Congress during Rumsfeld's tenure. Included is correspondence, memoranda, copies of bills, notes, background information, Congressional Record excerpts, constituent issue mail, and news clippings. Rumsfeld's positions are recorded in statements, press releases, staff notes, Congressional Record excerpts, and replies to constituents. Rumsfeld's voting record is detailed in legislative summaries and reference binders containing summaries and legislative histories of bills as well as excerpts from relevant statements by Rumsfeld. Analyses of his votes include a comparison of his voting record with that of the House Republican leadership and a Congressional Research Service analysis of his votes and statements on national defense.
The Public Relations subseries contains biographical material, statements, newsletters, press releases, constituent mailings, photographs, and a news clipping file. Rumsfeld's military academy appointments are recorded in the Service Academy Appointment subseries. A topical Speech Material file contains background material collected by the congressman and his staff for use in drafting speeches and statements. The file traces the evolution of Republican Party positions during the 1960s. A General Office File contains routine correspondence files, invitations accepted and declined, Rumsfeld's financial disclosure filings, staff lists, and office procedures.
The bulk of the White House series pertains to Rumsfeld's role as an official in Richard M. Nixon's administration and as Gerald R. Ford's chief of staff. Nixon appointed Rumsfeld to several positions, including personal assistant to the president with cabinet rank in April 1969, director of the Office of Economic Opportunity in May 1969, counselor to the president in December 1970, and director of the Cost of Living Council in October 1971. Several files span the range of these duties, including a chronological file containing copies of outgoing correspondence and memoranda, a travel file, and files that include memoranda written by Rumsfeld to the president on domestic and political issues. Other files focus on Rumsfeld's direction of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and Cost of Living Council (CLC). OEO files highlight Rumsfeld's reorganization of the agency, the first federal agency to be reordered in the Nixon administration. CLC files document Rumsfeld's implementation and enforcement of Phase II of Nixon's Economic Stabilization Program as well as planning for and announcement of Phase III. The earliest material consists of memoranda from Rumsfeld to the Nixon transition team while Rumsfeld was still in Congress. An alphabetical file contains incoming and outgoing correspondence largely of a personal nature.
The Ford Administration files relating to Rumsfeld's coordination of Ford's transition team in August 1974 include correspondence, memoranda, calendars, meeting agenda, action lists, interview notes, drafts, and the final report. Rumsfeld's subsequent duties as chief of staff are similarly well documented. His reorganization of the White House staff is detailed in files under the topical heading staff. The results of the reorganization were presented in a press conference on December 18, 1974. A copy of the press conference transcript marked by the president is filed with notes and other material exchanged between Ford and Rumsfeld. Other files concern the drafting of ethical standards, a study of the allocation of the president's time, strategy for the 1976 presidential campaign, and drafts of presidential speeches, including the State of the Union address. As in the Nixon Administration files, the Ford Administration subseries includes an alphabetical file containing Rumfeld's incoming and outgoing correspondence of a personal nature, a chronological file of outgoing correspondence and memoranda reflecting the full range of Rumsfeld's official duties and personal correspondence, memoranda from senior White House staff, and a travel file recording trips made by Rumsfeld while chief of staff.
The White House series documents presidential appointments held by Rumsfeld during the Reagan administration . Included are files pertaining to his membership on Reagan's Interim Foreign Policy Advisory Board and his duties as special envoy representing the president on the Law of the Sea Treaty in 1982-1983 and in meetings with Middle East leaders in 1983-1984. Files relating to the Middle East are classified. Other material dating from the Reagan administration includes letters from job seekers and a file concerning Kenneth L. Adelman's nomination as director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. A personal file spanning the Nixon and Ford administrations completes the White House series with correspondence, clippings, casework files, invitations declined, memberships and sponsorships declined or terminated, memorabilia, and photographs.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization series includes a file on Rumsfeld's nomination as ambassador, an alphabetical file of incoming and outgoing personal correspondence, a chronological file containing copies of official correspondence and memoranda as well as personal correspondence, monthly schedules, staff memoranda, and a travel file with correspondence and itineraries. Classified memoranda and cables detail lunch discussions of permanent representatives and communications to Henry Kissinger.
The Department of Defense series dates from Rumsfeld's first tenure as secretary of defense from 1975 to 1977. In addition to alphabetical and chronological correspondence files similar to those found in the White House and North Atlantic Treaty Organization series, the Department of Defense series contains a reading file of correspondence, memoranda, cables, and reports reviewed by the secretary. A significant portion of the series consists of transition briefing books prepared for Rumsfeld in 1975 and under Rumsfeld's direction for the incoming secretary of defense in 1977. Other material includes calendars, public statement and activities, and travel files. The Speeches and Writings File contains speeches, interviews, statements, articles, and notes in draft form or as file copies. Official statements issued by Rumsfeld in Congress, the White House, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Department of Defense are filed in the relevant series. The Miscellany series contains material predating Rumsfeld's election to Congress. Included are files from Rumsfeld's work on David Dennison's congressional campaign in Ohio, campaign material from other state and national elections, photographs of Rumsfeld as a Boy Scout and naval officer, Princeton University wrestling programs, and résumés dated 1950 and 1960.
Correspondents in Part I include Richard B. Cheney, Gerald R. Ford, Henry Kissinger, John E. Moss, Richard M. Nixon, Charles H. Percy, Brent Scowcroft, and George Pratt Shultz.
Part II
Material added to the collection as Part II spans the years 1888-2008 and chronicles aspects of Rumsfeld's life and career from the 1930s to 2008. The bulk of the addition, however, relates to his years in the private sector from 1977 to 2001 and to his nomination and confirmation as secretary of defense in 2000-2001. Part II is arranged in thirteen series: General Correspondence ; Public Service ; Business and Organizational File ; Political File ; Event File ; Speeches, Statements, Interviews, and Writings ; Press Clippings ; Miscellany ; Microfilm ; an Addition ; Classified ; Top Secret ; and Sensitive Compartmented Information– Top Secret .
The General Correspondence series spans the years 1951-2006, with most of the material dating between 1985 and 2000. Included is a chronological file , 1985-1986, and an alphabetical file , 1987-2006, containing Rumsfeld's incoming and outgoing correspondence with public officials, corporate executives, nonprofit organizations and foundations, political figures, policy analysts, academics, the press, friends, and associates. The series also features a Special Correspondence File consisting of photocopies of letters from United States presidents, public officials, foreign dignitaries, and persons in the arts received by Rumsfeld during the span of his career. Correspondents include Kenneth L. Adleman, William F. Buckley, George Bush, George W. Bush, Frank Charles Carlucci, Richard B. Cheney, Marguerite Stitt Church, Everett McKinley Dirksen, Gerald R. Ford, Newt Gingrich, Alexander Meigs Haig, Henry Kissinger, Richard M. Nixon, Daniel P. Moynihan, Charles H. Percy, Shimon Peres, and George Pratt Shultz.
The Public Service series covers the breadth of Rumsfeld's public career from his election to Congress in 1962 to his resignation as secretary of defense in 2006. Supplementing more extensive congressional files in Part I are memoranda and notes, a file relating to civil rights leader James Farmer, speech notes on the Vietnam War, and photocopies of material chronicling the House of Representatives minority leadership contest won by Gerald R. Ford in 1965. The series also contains material from Rumsfeld's White House years including memoranda and handwritten notes during the Nixon administration, particularly relating to his directorship of the Cost of Living Council. Files from Rumsfeld's chairmanship of Ford's presidential transition and his subsequent role as White House chief of staff include notes from meetings with the president and memoranda initialed or annotated by him. Memoranda and Rumsfeld's handwritten meeting notes are also available from his tenure as ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from 1973 to 1974, secretary of defense from 1975 to 1977, and special presidential envoy to the Middle East in 1983 and 1984. Correspondence and a large press clipping file further document his Middle East mission.
Much of the Public Service series pertains to Rumsfeld's chairmanship of public commissions and his nomination and confirmation as secretary of defense in 2000 and 2001. Featured prominently are files stemming from Rumsfeld's chairmanship of the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States (1998-1999) and the Commission to Assess National Security Space Management and Organization (2000). Memoranda, electronic mail exchanges, briefing material, and drafts detail the inner workings of the two commissions and the drafting of their final reports. Rumsfeld's service on other commissions in the 1980s and 1990s is also covered in the series including his appointments to the National Economic Commission, the Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction, the Trade Deficit Review Commission, and the United States-Japan Advisory Commission. Records relating to Rumsfeld's confirmation as secretary of defense in 2001 include briefing books and other background material, hearing transcripts, notes, and correspondence with the George W. Bush transition team. Aspects of Rumsfeld's subsequent tenure as secretary, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, are chronicled through correspondence, memoranda, reports, notes, statements, and other material assembled in a small chronological file.
The Business and Organizational File covers the years 1952-2002, with the bulk of material dating after 1977. Available are files relating to Rumsfeld's activities as chief executive officer of the pharmaceutical company G. D. Searle & Co. including correspondence and memoranda that provide insight into his transformation of the company, a chronology concerning aspartame (marketed as Nutrasweet), and Rumsfeld's writings on the wage and price standards of the Jimmy Carter administration. Also in the series is material pertaining to Rumsfeld's later role as chief executive officer of General Instrument Corporation, including events surrounding the initial public offering of the company's stock and the first public demonstrations of digital high-definition television, a technology developed by the company. Rumsfeld's membership on boards of directors, trustees, and advisors for businesses and nonprofit organizations is well documented and includes those of ABB Asea Brown Boveri; Amylin Pharmaceuticals; Gilead Sciences; Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships; National Park Foundation; Rand Corporation; Sears, Roebuck and Company; and Tribune Company. Many of these files reveal Rumsfeld's engagement in corporate governance and accountability issues.
The Political File series features Rumsfeld's correspondence with presidential campaigns, transition teams, and administrations from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush. Exchanges between Rumsfeld and the George W. Bush presidential campaign focus largely on his role as a national security advisor to the campaign and the drafting of a discussion paper on ballistic missile defense. The series also includes records from Rumsfeld's own presidential exploratory committee in 1986-1987, as well as personal data submitted by him to Gerald R. Ford and Ronald Reagan, both of whom considered Rumsfeld for vice president. Much of the Political File series consists of records from Rumsfeld's national chairmanship of the Robert J. Dole presidential campaign in 1996.
The Event File documents some of the conferences, speaking engagements, award ceremonies, board meetings, and political fund-raisers attended by Rumsfeld between 1986 and 2006, as well as his foreign travel and personal entertaining. Many of the events in 1986 and 1987 relate to Rumsfeld's presidential exploratory committee.
The Speeches, Statements, Interviews, and Writings series features drafts and final texts of Rumsfeld's speeches, articles, editorials, commentary, congressional testimony, statements, forewords, introductions, and lectures at Northwestern University. Also contained in the series are transcripts of interviews, oral histories, conference and panel discussions, press conferences, town hall meetings, and television appearances. While in the Ford White House, Rumsfeld developed a list of guidelines for being chief of staff that he called Rumsfeld's Rules. He later expanded the list to include more general advice for public office, business, and private life. The series includes drafts, published excerpts, and a file documenting the list's evolution.
The Press Clippings series consists largely of newspaper and magazine clippings written about Rumsfeld between 1961 and 2007. The clippings were compiled by a member of Rumsfeld's staff and organized in a series of binders, each of which includes a list of the clippings it contains. Another large clipping file can be found in the Miscellany series. Included are items dating back to Rumsfeld's childhood, high school, and university years. Many of the later clippings, particularly from 2001 to 2006, contain marked passages and annotations.
The Miscellany series also features appointment calendars covering the years 1963-2007 with chronological gaps in 1965, 1968, and 2001-2006. Memorabilia is included from Rumsfeld's childhood, high school, and undergraduate years at Princeton University. A small correspondence file relates to his activities after graduation from Princeton and before his election to Congress. Family papers consist of correspondence between Rumsfeld and his parents, news clippings pertaining to his wife, Joyce Pierson Rumsfeld, and family genealogies and ephemera dating back to 1888.
Select files in Part I and Part II were microfilmed in the mid-1980s before the collection was deposited at the Library of Congress. Most of the files relate to Rumsfeld's public service in Congress, the White House, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and to his first tenure as secretary of defense. A few files date from the early 1980s. Although the documents in folders were filmed, the file folders themselves were not. Navigating the contents of each reel is difficult given the absence of folder labels and a clear indication of the break between folders. The reel listing for the Microfilm series is an attempt to reconstruct likely headings.
Material received after the bulk of Part II was processed has been organized as an Addition to this portion. The Addition consists largely of correspondence, memoranda, interviews, and scheduling files from 2007, the year following Rumsfeld's resignation as secretary of defense. Also included is a bound set of Rumsfeld's public statements from 2004 to 2006.