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Sentinel
February 2011
On Sale: January 25, 2011
704 pages
ISBN: 159523067X
EAN: 9781595230676
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir
"If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much." -
Rumsfeld's Rules
Few Americans have spent more time
near the center of power than Donald Rumsfeld. Now he has
written an unflinching memoir of his half-century career,
sharing previously undisclosed details that will fascinate
readers and force historians to rethink many
controversies.
Starting from a middle-class childhood
in Illinois, Rumsfeld had a rapid rise that won him early
acclaim. He shows us what it was like growing up during the
Great Depression and World War II, going to Princeton on
scholarships, serving as a naval aviator, then getting his
first political job on Capitol Hill during the Eisenhower
administration. He recalls how he won a seat in the House of
Representatives at age thirty and what he experienced as a
Republican in Congress during the Kennedy and Johnson years.
We also follow him back to the executive branch as
he took on key cabinet positions in the Nixon and Ford
administrations, including his service as the youngest-ever
secretary of defense, just after the trauma of Vietnam. And
we learn about the challenges he later faced as a CEO in the
private sector, and during his special assignments for
President Reagan, including a face-to-face meeting with
Saddam Hussein in 1983.
All of that would have been
enough material for a fascinating book. But as 2001 began,
Rumsfeld's greatest challenges lay ahead of him. At age
sixty-eight he returned to the Pentagon as President Bush's
secretary of defense, with a mandate to transform the
military for a new century. Just nine months later he would
confront the worst acts of terrorism in American history,
followed by unexpected wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And he
would be on the firing line for many controversies, from the
revelations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison to allegations of
torture at Guantánamo Bay.
Known and Unknown
reveals what happened behind the scenes during the critical
moments of the Bush years, as the President's inner circle
debated how best to defend our country. It is based not only
on Rumsfeld's memory but also on hundreds of previously
unreleased documents from throughout his career. It also
features his blunt, firsthand opinions about some of the
world's best-known figures, from Margaret Thatcher to Elvis
Presley, from Henry Kissinger to Colin Powell, and about
each American president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George
W. Bush.
In a famous press briefing, Rumsfeld once
remarked that "there are also unknown unknowns . . . things
we do not know we don't know." His book makes us realize
just how much we didn't know.
Donald Rumsfeld is
donating his proceeds from the sales of Known and Unknown to
the military charities supported by the Rumsfeld Foundation.
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