Current Affairs: A very subjective dissection of Bush's former defence secretary.
Rumsfeld: An American Disaster By Andrew Cockburn Verso, 247pp. £17.99
He was a man of many parts. A cuddly little twinkle-eyes fronting a steely determination to defend the US, he became for many a byword of bureaucratic thuggery and arrogance, a sex symbol for women of a certain disposition. In the wake of his daring raid on Afghanistan in 2001, he was the "babe magnet" of Fox TV, the "hunk" of the Wall Street Journal, and "Rumstud" for his boss and president, George W Bush. "One of the world's sexiest men", People magazine called him in 2002. But, 30 years earlier, in 1971, long before his sizzling sex appeal was apparent, Donald Rumsfeld was described by president Richard Nixon as "a ruthless little bastard".
As might be expected of a scion of the famous leftist family of the late Claud Cockburn, his son Andrew starts his investigation with Nixon's assessment of the former US secretary of defence and works down. This is no place to look for impartial judgment or the objective evidence on which it might rest, though it provides enough of the relevant facts to strengthen the case that the author makes in the subtitle of his book. Through the revolving door from political office to business opportunity, which Rumsfeld travelled with dizzy frequency, Cockburn hunts his prey with a mix of relish and disgust.
HIS FATHER, CLAUDCockburn, who was born in China in 1904 to a diplomat father, left his journalist post in the London Times, then left the Communist Party and found his way to Youghal - "standing at a slight angle to the universe" - and to a new career as novelist and freelance journalist with The Irish Times. His memoirs, I, Claud, were published by Penguin and he became the father of a famous journalistic dynasty: Andrew Cockburn is one of his three journalist sons (with Alexander and Patrick) who have carried on the critical left tradition of their father. Claud's daughter, Claudia, married Michael Flanders of the British comic duo Flanders and Swann, and their daughter, Stephanie Flanders, is currently economics editor of the BBC's Newsnight.
Donald Rumsfeld first attained office in 1963, when he was elected to Congress to represent the 13th Illinois district, a wealthy suburb of Chicago. For a man destined to play a major - and catastrophic - role in the ideologically-driven project of the Bush administration after 9/11, it is noteworthy how he started off as a blank slate, untainted by moral prejudice in any direction. The ambitious 29-year-old, embarking on his political career, had to ask the chairman of his local Republican Party whether he should run on a platform of conservative or moderate ideas. "For the young Rumsfeld," as Cockburn says, "ideology was a matter of tactics." He was an opportunist, not a neoconservative.
When Richard Nixon needed a tough operator who would do his bidding and run down the anti-poverty programme of his predecessors, Kennedy and Johnson, his "ruthless little bastard" had his hand up at the back of the class. Gathering like-minded proteges to serve his purpose, he was now launched on an administrative career that would take him twice to the highest office in the Pentagon, but never to the office he craved.
One of his early acolytes - the one he trained and nurtured with special care - was a self-effacing, job-hunting youngster from Wyoming named Richard Cheney. Cockburn cites Robert Harmann's description of Rumsfeld's new recruit: "His most distinguishing features were snake-cold eyes, like a Cheyenne gambler's." Their relationship grew over the years until the younger man outpaced his mentor and together they became the chief executives of the Bush response to 9/11.
To advance his longer-term aspirations for the White House, Rumsfeld used his first period as secretary of defence under president Gerald Ford to manipulate himself as Ford's running mate in the 1976 election. He made powerful enemies in this period, including Henry Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller, and future president George H Bush, whose hatred for Rumsfeld never abated. That may be why, the author hints, Bush jnr offered Rumsfeld the top Pentagon job in December 2000. Cockburn writes of the rivalry between father and son, retailing the story of the younger Bush challenging his father to a fight - "mano a mano" - over the young man's drinking.
To fill the important post of under-secretary - ranked third at the Pentagon - Rumsfeld reached out to his old colleague and fellow cold warrior, Richard Perle. When Perle was forced to decline the offer for business reasons, Rumsfeld decided to play safe and appoint a puppet, a "disorganised nutcase", as the author cites one official's description of the successful candidate, Douglas Feith. Gen Tommy Franks, the commanding general in the Afghan and Iraq wars, who was forced to have daily dealings with Rumsfeld's under-secretary, was not so generous. He famously characterised Feith as "the f**king stupidest guy on the face of the earth".
COCKBURN'S TEXT JUMPSforward and back a little disconcertingly in the first half of the book. Like many angry commentaries on the period by journalists with insider access, and insiders themselves who have seen the light or been shown the door, this dissection of power and ambition in Washington reads in the earlier chapters like a compilation of gossip without a satisfactory narrative to hold it together. It is entertaining gossip, however, and is reasonably well sourced.
The second half of the book - from chapter seven, entitled "Warlord" - is more focused on the chain of events from September 11th, 2001, which starts with a Rumsfeld swagger and ends in humiliation.
"Thanks to 9/11," writes Cockburn, "everything changed for Rumsfeld." His shock-and-awe tactics, planned for Iraq after Afghanistan, made him a superstar in Washington as he saw that his "dreams of political triumph had finally and brilliantly come true". The tragedy for Americans became the new opportunity for their secretary of defence to scale heights of power and influence even he had scarcely dreamed of.
On November 1st, 2006, responding to plummeting polls and escalating problems on the battlefield, George W Bush quelled the rumours and leaks of journalists and White House insiders about the future of vice-president Cheney and Rumsfeld: "Both those men are doing fantastic jobs and I strongly support them." A week later, he sacked Rumsfeld.
Bill McSweeney teaches international politics at the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin.