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Dhole

The dhole ( Cuon alpinus) is a canid native to Central, South, East and Southeast Asia. It is genetically close to species within the genus Canis, but distinct in several anatomical aspects: its skull is convex rather than concave in profile, it lacks a third lower molar and the upper molars possess only a single cusp as opposed to between two and four. During the Pleistocene, the dhole ranged throughout Asia, with its range also extending into Europe (with a single record also reported from North America) but became restricted to its historical range 12,000–18,000 years ago.

The dhole is a highly social animal, living in large clans without rigid dominance hierarchies and containing multiple breeding females. Such clans usually consist of about 12 individuals, but groups of over 40 are known. It is a diurnal pack hunter which preferentially targets large and medium-sized ungulates. In tropical forests, the dhole competes with the tiger (Panthera tigris) and the leopard (Panthera pardus), targeting somewhat different prey species, but still with substantial dietary overlap.

It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, as populations are decreasing and estimated to comprise fewer than 2,500 mature individuals. Factors contributing to this decline include habitat loss, loss of prey, competition with other species, persecution due to livestock predation, and disease transfer from domestic dogs.

Etymology and naming
The etymology of "dhole" is unclear. The possible earliest written use of the word in English occurred in 1808 by soldier Thomas Williamson, who encountered the animal in Ramghur district, India. He stated that dhole was a common local name for the species. In 1827, Charles Hamilton Smith claimed that it was derived from a language spoken in 'various parts of the East'.

Two years later, Smith connected this word with deli 'mad, crazy', and erroneously compared the Turkish word with dol and dol (cfr. also dull; toll), which are in fact from the Proto-Germanic *dwalaz 'foolish, stupid'. Richard Lydekker wrote nearly 80 years later that the word was not used by the natives living within the species' range. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary theorises that it may have come from the ತೋಳ.

Other English names for the species include Asian wild dog, Asiatic wild dog, Indian wild dog, whistling dog, red dog, red wolf, and mountain wolf.

Taxonomy and evolution

Canis alpinus was the binomial name proposed by Peter Simon Pallas in 1811, who described its range as encompassing the upper levels of Udskoi Ostrog in Amurland, towards the eastern side and in the region of the upper Lena River, around the Yenisei River and occasionally crossing into China. This northern Russian range reported by Pallas during the 18th and 19th centuries is "considerably north" of where this species occurs today.

Canis primaevus was a name proposed by Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1833 who thought that the dhole was a primitive Canis form and the progenitor of the domestic dog. Hodgson later took note of the dhole's physical distinctiveness from the genus Canis and proposed the genus Cuon.

The first study on the origins of the species was conducted by paleontologist Erich Thenius, who concluded in 1955 that the dhole was a post-Pleistocene descendant of a golden jackal-like ancestor. The paleontologist Bjorn Kurten wrote in his 1968 book Pleistocene Mammals of Europe that the primitive dhole Canis majori Del Campana 1913 —the remains of which have been found in Villafranchian era Valdarno, Italy and in China—was almost indistinguishable from the genus Canis. In comparison, the modern species has greatly reduced molars and the cusps have developed into sharply trenchant points. During the Early Middle Pleistocene there arose both Canis majori stehlini that was the size of a large wolf, and the early dhole Canis alpinus Pallas 1811 which first appeared at Hundsheim and Mosbach in Germany. In the Late Pleistocene era the European dhole (C. a. europaeus) was modern-looking and the transformation of the lower molar into a single cusped, slicing tooth had been completed; however, its size was comparable with that of a wolf. This subspecies became extinct in Europe at the end of the late Würm period, but the species as a whole still inhabits a large area of Asia. The European dhole may have survived up until the early Holocene in the Iberian Peninsula. and what is believed to be dhole remains have been found at Riparo Fredian in northern Italy dated 10,800 years old.

The vast Pleistocene range of this species also included numerous islands in Asia that this species no longer inhabits, such as Sri Lanka, Borneo and possibly Palawan in the Philippines. Middle Pleistocene dhole fossils have also been found in the Matsukae Cave in northern Kyushu Island in western Japan and in the Lower Kuzuu fauna in Tochigi Prefecture in Honshu Island, east Japan. Dhole fossils from the Late Pleistocene dated to about 10,700 years before present are known from the Luobi Cave or Luobi-Dong cave in Hainan Island in south China where they no longer exist. Additionally, fossils of canidae possibly belonging to dhole have been excavated from Dajia River in Taichung County, Taiwan.

A single record of the dhole is known from North America. This consists of a jaw fragment and teeth of Late Pleistocene age found in San Josecito Cave in northeast Mexico, dating to around 27-11,000 years ago.

Dholes are also known from the Middle and Late Pleistocene fossil record of Europe. In 2021, the analyses of the mitochondrial genomes extracted from the fossil remains of two extinct European dhole specimens from the Jáchymka cave, Czech Republic dated 35,000–45,000 years old indicate that these were genetically basal to modern dholes and possessed much greater genetic diversity.

The dhole's distinctive morphology has been a source of much confusion in determining the species' systematic position among the Canidae. George Simpson placed the dhole in the subfamily Simocyoninae alongside the African wild dog and the bush dog, on account of all three species' similar dentition. Subsequent authors, including Juliet Clutton-Brock, noted greater morphological similarities to canids of the genera Canis, Dusicyon and Alopex than to either Speothos or Lycaon, with any resemblance to the latter two being due to convergent evolution.

Some authors consider the extinct Canis subgenus Xenocyon as ancestral to both the genus Lycaon and the genus Cuon. Subsequent studies on the canid genome revealed that the dhole and African wild dog are closely related to members of the genus Canis. This closeness to Canis may have been confirmed in a menagerie in Madras, where according to zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock there is a record of a dhole that interbred with a golden jackal. DNA sequencing of the Sardinian dhole (Cynotherium sardous) an extinct small canine species formerly native to the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean, and which has often been suggested to have descended from Xenocyon, has found that it is most closely related to the living dhole among canines.

Admixture with the African wild dog
In 2018, whole genome sequencing was used to compare all members (apart from the black-backed and side-striped jackals) of the genus Canis, along with the dhole and the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus). There was strong evidence of ancient genetic admixture between the dhole and the African wild dog. Today, their ranges are remote from each other; however, during the Pleistocene era the dhole could be found as far west as Europe. The study proposes that the dhole's distribution may have once included the Middle East, from where it may have admixed with the African wild dog in North Africa. However, there is no evidence of the dhole having existed in the Middle East nor North Africa, though the Lycaon was present in Europe during the Early Pleistocene, with its last record in the region dating to 830,000 years ago. Genetic evidence from the Sardinan dhole suggests that both Sardinian and modern dholes share ancestry from the Lycaeon lineage, but this ancestry is significantly higher in modern dholes than in the Sardinian dhole.

Subspecies
Historically, up to ten subspecies of dholes have been recognised. , seven subspecies are recognised.

However, studies on the dhole's mtDNA and microsatellite genotype showed no clear subspecific distinctions. Nevertheless, two major phylogeographic groupings were discovered in dholes of the Asian mainland, which likely diverged during a glaciation event. One population extends from South, Central and North India (south of the Ganges) into Myanmar, and the other extends from India north of the Ganges into northeastern India, Myanmar, Thailand and the Malaysian Peninsula. The origin of dholes in Sumatra and Java is,, unclear, as they show greater relatedness to dholes in India, Myanmar and China rather than with those in nearby Malaysia. However, the Canid Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) states that further research is needed because all of the samples were from the southern part of this species' range and the Tien Shan subspecies has distinct morphology.

In the absence of further data, the researchers involved in the study speculated that Javan and Sumatran dholes could have been introduced to the islands by humans. Fossils of dhole from the early Middle Pleistocene have been found in Java.

Characteristics
The dhole's general tone of the fur is reddish, with the brightest hues occurring in winter. In the winter coat, the back is clothed in a saturated rusty-red to reddish colour with brownish highlights along the top of the head, neck and shoulders. The throat, chest, flanks, and belly and the upper parts of the limbs are less brightly coloured, and are more yellowish in tone. The lower parts of the limbs are whitish, with dark brownish bands on the anterior sides of the forelimbs. The muzzle and forehead are greyish-reddish. The tail is very luxuriant and fluffy, and is mainly of a reddish-ocherous colour, with a dark brown tip. The summer coat is shorter, coarser and darker. The dorsal and lateral guard hairs in adults measure 20–30 mm in length. Dholes in the Moscow Zoo moult once a year from March to May. A melanistic individual was recorded in the northern Coimbatore Forest Division in Tamil Nadu.

The dhole has a wide and massive skull with a well-developed sagittal crest, and its masseter muscles are highly developed compared to other canid species, giving the face an almost hyena-like appearance. The rostrum is shorter than that of domestic dogs and most other canids. It has six rather than seven lower molars. The upper molars are weak, being one third to one half the size of those of wolves and have only one cusp as opposed to between two and four, as is usual in canids, an adaptation thought to improve shearing ability, thus allowing it to compete more successfully with kleptoparasites. Adult females can weigh 10 - 17 kg, while the slightly larger male may weigh 15 - 21 kg. The mean weight of adults from three small samples was 15.1 kg.

In appearance, the dhole has been variously described as combining the physical characteristics of the gray wolf and the red fox, and as being "cat-like" on account of its long backbone and slender limbs.

Distribution and habitat
The dhole can be found in Tibet and possibly also in North Korea and Pakistan. It once inhabited the alpine steppes extending into Kashmir to the Ladakh area. In Central Asia, the dhole primarily inhabits mountainous areas; in the western part of its range, it lives mostly in alpine meadows and high-montane steppes, while in the east, it mainly ranges in montane taigas, and is sometimes sighted along coastlines. In India, Myanmar, Indochina, Indonesia and China, it prefers forested areas in alpine zones and is occasionally sighted in plains regions.

In the Pamir Mountains of southern Kyrgyzstan, the presence of the dhole was confirmed in 2019. The dhole might still be present in the Tunkinsky National Park in extreme southern Siberia near Lake Baikal. It possibly still lives in the Primorsky Krai province in far eastern Russia, where it was considered a rare and endangered species in 2004, with unconfirmed reports in the Pikthsa-Tigrovy Dom protected forest area; no sighting was reported in other areas since the late 1970s. Currently, no other recent reports are confirmed of dhole being present in Russia. However, the dhole might be present in the eastern Sayan Mountains and in the Transbaikal region; it has been sighted in Tofalaria in the Irkutsk Oblast, the Republic of Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai.

One pack was sighted in the Qilian Mountains in 2006. In 2011 to 2013, local government officials and herders reported the presence of several dhole packs at elevations of 2000 to 3500 m near Taxkorgan Nature Reserve in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Several packs and a female adult with pups were also recorded by camera traps at elevations of around 2500 to 4000 m in Yanchiwan National Nature Reserve in the northern Gansu Province in 2013–2014. Dholes have been also reported in the Altyn-Tagh Mountains.

In China's Yunnan Province, dholes were recorded in Baima Xueshan Nature Reserve in 2010–2011. Dhole samples were obtained in Jiangxi Province in 2013. Confirmed records by camera-trapping since 2008 have occurred in southern and western Gansu province, southern Shaanxi province, southern Qinghai province, southern and western Yunnan province, western Sichuan province, the southern Xinjiang Autonomous Region and in the Southeastern Tibet Autonomoous Region. There are also historical records of dhole dating to 1521–1935 in Hainan Island, but the species is no longer present and is estimated to have become extinct around 1942.

The dhole occurs in most of India south of the Ganges, particularly in the Central Indian Highlands and the Western and Eastern Ghats. It is also present in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and West Bengal and in the Indo-Gangetic Plain's Terai region. Dhole populations in the Himalayas and northwest India are fragmented.

In 2011, dhole packs were recorded by camera traps in the Chitwan National Park. Its presence was confirmed in the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area in 2011 by camera traps. In February 2020, dholes were sighted in the Vansda National Park, with camera traps confirming the presence of two individuals in May of the same year. This was the first confirmed sighting of dholes in Gujarat since 1970.

In Bhutan, the dhole is present in Jigme Dorji National Park.

In Bangladesh, it inhabits forest reserves in the Sylhet area, as well the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the southeast. Recent camera trap photos in the Chittagong in 2016 showed the continued presence of the dhole. These regions probably do not harbour a viable population, as mostly small groups or solitary individuals were sighted.

In Myanmar, the dhole is present in several protected areas. In 2015, dholes and tigers were recorded by camera-traps for the first time in the hill forests of Karen State.

Its range is highly fragmented in the Malaysian Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Vietnam and Thailand. In 2014, camera trap videos in the montane tropical forests at 2000 m in the Kerinci Seblat National Park in Sumatra revealed its continued presence. A camera trapping survey in the Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand from January 2008 to February 2010 documented one healthy dhole pack. In northern Laos, dholes were studied in Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area. Camera trap surveys from 2012 to 2017 recorded dholes in the same Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area.

In Vietnam, dholes were sighted only in Pu Mat National Park in 1999, in Yok Don National Park in 2003 and 2004; and in Ninh Thuan Province in 2014.

In 2019, scat samples collected in the Bek-Tosot Conservancy in Kyrgyzstan confirmed the continued presence of dholes in the area. This was the first record of dholes from the country in almost three decades.

A disjunct dhole population was reported in the area of Trabzon and Rize in northeastern Turkey near the border with Georgia in the 1990s. This report was not considered to be reliable. One single individual was claimed to have been shot in 2013 in the nearby Kabardino-Balkaria Republic of Russia in the central Caucasus; its remains were analysed in May 2015 by a biologist from the Kabardino-Balkarian State University, who concluded that the skull was indeed that of a dhole. In August 2015, researchers from the National Museum of Natural History and the Karadeniz Technical University started an expedition to track and document possible Turkish population of dhole. In October 2015, they concluded that two skins of alleged dholes in Turkey probably belonged to dogs, pending DNA analysis of samples from the skins, and, having analyzed photos of the skull of alleged dhole in Kabardino-Balkaria Republic of Russia, they concluded it was a grey wolf.

Ecology and behaviour
Dholes produce whistles resembling the calls of red foxes, sometimes rendered as coo-coo. How this sound is produced is unknown, though it is thought to help in coordinating the pack when travelling through thick brush. When attacking prey, they emit screaming KaKaKaKAA sounds. Other sounds include whines (food soliciting), growls (warning), screams, chatterings (both of which are alarm calls) and yapping cries. In contrast to wolves, dholes do not howl or bark.

Dholes have a complex body language. Friendly or submissive greetings are accompanied by horizontal lip retraction and the lowering of the tail, as well as licking. Playful dholes open their mouths with their lips retracted and their tails held in a vertical position whilst assuming a play bow. Aggressive or threatening dholes pucker their lips forward in a snarl and raise the hairs on their backs, as well as keep their tails horizontal or vertical. When afraid, they pull their lips back horizontally with their tails tucked and their ears flat against the skull.

Social and territorial behaviour
Dholes are more social than gray wolves, and have less of a dominance hierarchy, as seasonal scarcity of food is not a serious concern for them. In this manner, they closely resemble African wild dogs in social structure. They live in clans rather than packs, as the latter term refers to a group of animals that always hunt together. In contrast, dhole clans frequently break into small packs of three to five animals, particularly during the spring season, as this is the optimal number for catching fawns. Dominant dholes are hard to identify, as they do not engage in dominance displays as wolves do, though other clan members will show submissive behaviour toward them. Intragroup fighting is rarely observed.

Dholes are far less territorial than wolves, with pups from one clan often joining another without trouble once they mature sexually. Clans typically number 5 to 12 individuals in India, though clans of 40 have been reported. In Thailand, clans rarely exceed three individuals. Unlike other canids, there is no evidence of dholes using urine to mark their territories or travel routes. When urinating, dholes, especially males, may raise one hind leg or both to result in a handstand. Handstand urination is also seen in bush dogs (Speothos venaticus). They may defecate in conspicuous places, though a territorial function is unlikely, as faeces are mostly deposited within the clan's territory rather than the periphery. Faeces are often deposited in what appear to be communal latrines. They do not scrape the earth with their feet, as other canids do, to mark their territories.

Denning
Four kinds of den have been described; simple earth dens with one entrance (usually remodeled striped hyena or porcupine dens); complex cavernous earth dens with more than one entrance; simple cavernous dens excavated under or between rocks; and complex cavernous dens with several other dens in the vicinity, some of which are interconnected. Dens are typically located under dense scrub or on the banks of dry rivers or creeks. The entrance to a dhole den can be almost vertical, with a sharp turn three to four feet down. The tunnel opens into an antechamber, from which extends more than one passage. Some dens may have up to six entrances leading up to 100 ft of interconnecting tunnels. These "cities" may be developed over many generations of dholes, and are shared by the clan females when raising young together. Like African wild dogs and dingoes, dholes will avoid killing prey close to their dens.

Reproduction and development
In India, the mating season occurs between mid-October and January, while captive dholes in the Moscow Zoo breed mostly in February. Unlike wolf packs, dhole clans may contain more than one breeding female. More than one female dhole may den and rear their litters together in the same den. During mating, the female assumes a crouched, cat-like position. There is no copulatory tie characteristic of other canids when the male dismounts. Instead, the pair lie on their sides facing each other in a semicircular formation. The gestation period lasts 60–63 days, with litter sizes averaging four to six pups. Their growth rate is much faster than that of wolves, being similar in rate to that of coyotes.

The hormone metabolites of five males and three females kept in Thai zoos was studied. The breeding males showed an increased level of testosterone from October to January. The oestrogen level of captive females increases for about two weeks in January, followed by an increase of progesterone. They displayed sexual behaviours during the oestrogen peak of the females.

Pups are suckled at least 58 days. During this time, the pack feeds the mother at the den site. Dholes do not use rendezvous sites to meet their pups as wolves do, though one or more adults will stay with the pups at the den while the rest of the pack hunts. Once weaning begins, the adults of the clan will regurgitate food for the pups until they are old enough to join in hunting. They remain at the den site for 70–80 days. By the age of six months, pups accompany the adults on hunts and will assist in killing large prey such as sambar by the age of eight months. Maximum longevity in captivity is 15–16 years.

Hunting behaviour
Before embarking on a hunt, clans go through elaborate prehunt social rituals involving nuzzling, body rubbing and mounting. Dholes are primarily diurnal hunters, hunting in the early hours of the morning. They rarely hunt at night, except on moonlit nights, indicating they greatly rely on sight when hunting. They can chase their prey for many hours. During a pursuit, one or more dholes takes over chasing the prey, while the rest of the pack keeps up at a steadier pace behind, taking over once the other group tires. Most chases are short, lasting only 500 m. When chasing fleet-footed prey, they run at a pace of 30 mph. Dholes frequently drive their prey into water bodies, where the targeted animal's movements are hindered.

Once large prey is caught, one dhole grabs the prey's nose, while the rest of the pack pulls the animal down by the flanks and hindquarters. They do not use a killing bite to the throat. They occasionally blind their prey by attacking the eyes. Serows are among the only ungulate species capable of effectively defending themselves against dhole attacks, due to their thick, protective coats and short, sharp horns capable of easily impaling dholes. Dholes tear open their prey's flanks and disembowel it, eating the heart, liver, lungs and some sections of the intestines. The stomach and rumen are usually left untouched. Prey weighing less than 50 kg is usually killed within two minutes, while large stags may take 15 minutes to die. Once prey is secured, dholes tear off pieces of the carcass and eat in seclusion. They give the pups access to a kill. They are generally tolerant of scavengers at their kills. Both mother and young are provided with regurgitated food by other pack members.

Feeding ecology
Prey animals in India include chital, sambar deer, muntjac, mouse deer, barasingha, wild boar, gaur, water buffaloes, banteng, cattle, nilgai, goats, Indian hares, Himalayan field rats and langurs. There is one record of a pack bringing down an Indian elephant calf in Assam, despite desperate defense of the mother, resulting in numerous losses to the pack. In Kashmir, they prey on markhor, and thamin in Myanmar, Malayan tapir, Sumatran serow in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula and Javan rusa in Java. In the Tian Shan and Tarbagatai Mountains, dholes prey on Siberian ibexes, arkhar, roe deer, Caspian red deer and wild boar. In the Altai and Sayan Mountains, they prey on musk deer and reindeer. In eastern Siberia, they prey on roe deer, Manchurian wapiti, wild pig, musk deer and reindeer, while in Primorye they feed on sika deer and goral. In Mongolia, they prey on argali and rarely Siberian ibex.

Like African wild dogs, but unlike wolves, dholes are not known to actively hunt people. They are known to eat insects and lizards. Dholes eat fruit and vegetable matter more readily than other canids. In captivity, they eat various kinds of grasses, herbs and leaves, seemingly for pleasure rather than just when ill. In summertime in the Tian Shan Mountains, dholes eat large quantities of mountain rhubarb. Although opportunistic, dholes have a seeming aversion to hunting cattle and their calves. Livestock predation by dholes has been a problem in Bhutan since the late 1990s, as domestic animals are often left outside to graze in the forest, sometimes for weeks at a time. Livestock stall-fed at night and grazed near homes are never attacked. Oxen are killed more often than cows, probably because they are given less protection.

Enemies and competitors
In some areas, dholes are sympatric to tigers and leopards. Competition between these species is mostly avoided through differences in prey selection, although there is still substantial dietary overlap. Along with leopards, dholes typically target animals in the 30 – range (mean weights of 35.3 kg for dhole and 23.4 kg for leopard), while tigers selected for prey animals heavier than 176 kg (but their mean prey weight was 65.5 kg). Also, other characteristics of the prey, such as sex, arboreality and aggressiveness, may play a role in prey selection. For example, dholes preferentially select male chital, whereas leopards kill both sexes more evenly (and tigers prefer larger prey altogether), dholes and tigers kill langurs rarely compared to leopards due to the leopards' greater arboreality, while leopards kill wild boar infrequently due to the inability of this relatively light predator to tackle aggressive prey of comparable weight.

Tigers are dangerous opponents for dholes, as they have sufficient strength to kill a dhole with a single paw strike. Dhole packs are smaller in areas with higher tiger densities due to tigers directly killing dholes and stealing kills they made. The kleptoparasitism causes dholes to prefer hunting smaller animals because they can eat more of a smaller carcass before a tiger arrives to steal it. Direct predation can lead to lower reproductive and recruitment rates, lower hunting success rates and less food for the pups when a helper is killed, and potentially pack destabilization if one member of the breeding pair is killed.

Dhole packs may steal leopard kills, while leopards may kill dholes if they encounter them singly or in pairs. There are numerous records of leopards being treed by dholes. Dholes were once thought to be a major factor in reducing Asiatic cheetah populations, though this is doubtful, as cheetahs live in open areas as opposed to forested areas favoured by dholes. Since leopards are smaller than tigers and are more likely to hunt dholes, dhole packs tend to react more aggressively toward them than they do towards tigers.

Dhole packs occasionally attack Asiatic black bears, snow leopards and sloth bears. When attacking bears, dholes will attempt to prevent them from seeking refuge in caves and lacerate their hindquarters. Although usually antagonistic toward wolves, they may hunt and feed alongside one another.

The dhole is also sympatric with the Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) in parts of its range. There is at least one record of a lone wolf associating with a pair of dholes in Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary, and two observations in Satpura Tiger Reserve. They infrequently associate in mixed groups with golden jackals. Domestic dogs may kill dholes, though they will feed alongside them on occasion.

Diseases and parasites
Dholes are vulnerable to a number of different diseases, particularly in areas where they are sympatric with other canid species. Infectious pathogens such as Toxocara canis are present in their faeces. They may suffer from rabies, canine distemper, mange, trypanosomiasis, canine parvovirus and endoparasites such as cestodes and roundworms.

Threats
Habitat loss is thought to amount to 60% of the dhole's historical range in India. The fragmentation and isolation of dhole populations has resulted in inbreeding and the Allee effect, which threaten its long-term viability.

Some ethnic groups like the Kuruba and Mon Khmer-speaking tribes will appropriate dhole kills; some Indian villagers welcome the dhole because of this appropriation of dhole kills. Dholes were persecuted throughout India for bounties until they were given protection by the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Methods used for dhole hunting included poisoning, snaring, shooting and clubbing at den sites. Native Indian people killed dholes primarily to protect livestock, while British sporthunters during the British Raj did so under the conviction that dholes were responsible for drops in game populations. Persecution of dholes still occurs with varying degrees of intensity according to the region. Bounties paid for dholes used to be 25 rupees, though this was reduced to 20 in 1926 after the number of presented dhole carcasses became too numerous to maintain the established reward. The Indochinese dhole population suffers heavily from nonselective hunting techniques such as snaring. The fur trade does not pose a significant threat to the dhole. The people of India do not eat dhole flesh and their fur is not considered overly valuable. Due to their rarity, dholes were never harvested for their skins in large numbers in the Soviet Union and were sometimes accepted as dog or wolf pelts (being labeled as "half wolf" for the latter). The winter fur was prized by the Chinese, who bought dhole pelts in Ussuriysk during the late 1860s for a few silver rubles. In the early 20th century, dhole pelts reached eight rubles in Manchuria. In Semirechye, fur coats made from dhole skin were considered the warmest, but were very costly.

Conservation
In India, the dhole is protected under Schedule 2 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The creation of reserves under Project Tiger provided some protection for dhole populations sympatric with tigers. In 2014, the Indian government sanctioned its first dhole conservation breeding centre at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park (IGZP) in Visakhapatnam. The dhole has been protected in Russia since 1974, though it is vulnerable to poison left out for wolves. In China, the animal is listed as a category II protected species under the Chinese wildlife protection act of 1988. In Cambodia, the dhole is protected from all hunting, while conservation laws in Vietnam limit extraction and utilisation.

In 2016, the Korean company Sooam Biotech was reported to be attempting to clone the dhole using dogs as surrogate mothers to help conserve the species.

In culture and literature
Three dhole-like animals are featured on the coping stone of the Bharhut stupa dating from 100 BC. They are shown waiting by a tree, with a woman or spirit trapped up it, a scene reminiscent of dholes treeing tigers. The animal's fearsome reputation in India is reflected by the number of pejorative names it possesses in Hindi, which variously translate as "red devil", "devil dog", "jungle devil", or "hound of Kali".

Leopold von Schrenck had trouble obtaining dhole specimens during his exploration of Amurland, as the local Gilyaks greatly feared the species. This fear and superstition was not, however, shared by neighbouring Tungusic peoples. It was speculated that this differing attitude towards the dhole was due to the Tungusic peoples' more nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Dholes appear in Rudyard Kipling's Red Dog, where they are portrayed as aggressive and bloodthirsty animals which descend from the Deccan Plateau into the Seeonee Hills inhabited by Mowgli and his adopted wolf pack to cause carnage among the jungle's denizens. They are described as living in packs numbering hundreds of individuals, and that even Shere Khan and Hathi make way for them when they descend into the jungle. The dholes are despised by the wolves because of their destructiveness, their habit of not living in dens and the hair between their toes. With Mowgli and Kaa's help, the Seeonee wolf pack manages to wipe out the dholes by leading them through bee hives and torrential waters before finishing off the rest in battle.

Japanese author Uchida Roan wrote 犬物語 (A dog's tale) in 1901 as a nationalistic critique of the declining popularity of indigenous dog breeds, which he asserted were descended from the dhole.

A fictional version of the dhole, imbued with supernatural abilities, appears in a sixth-season episode of TV series The X-Files, titled "Alpha".

In China, the dhole were widely known throughout history and mythology. One notable legendary creature is the Yazi (睚眦), which was believed to be a creature that was part-dhole, part-dragon. In modern times, however, the Chinese word for dhole is often confused with 'jackal' or 'wolf', resulting in many confusions and mistranslations of dholes as jackals or wolves.

Dholes also appear as enemies in the video game Far Cry 4, alongside other predators such as the Bengal tiger, honey badger, snow leopard, clouded leopard, Tibetan wolf and Asian black bear. They can be found hunting the player and other NPCs across the map, but are easily killed, being one of the weakest enemies in the game. They once again appear in the video game Far Cry Primal, where they play similar roles as their counterparts in the previous game, but can now also be tamed and used in combat by Takkar, the main protagonist of the game.

Tameability
Brian Houghton Hodgson kept captured dholes in captivity, and found, with the exception of one animal, they remained shy and vicious even after 10 months. According to Richard Lydekker, adult dholes are nearly impossible to tame, though pups are docile and can even be allowed to play with domestic dog pups until they reach early adulthood. A dhole may have been presented as a gift to the Akkadian king Ibbi-Sin as tribute referred to in the inscription as the "red dog of Meluhha" or Indus Valley Civilization of Pakistan suggesting a once greater range of the dhole.

title: Dhole


text:
Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as secretary of defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He was both the youngest and the oldest secretary of defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a four-term U.S. Congressman from Illinois (1963–1969), director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (1969–1970), counselor to the president (1969–1973), the U.S. Representative to NATO (1973–1974), and the White House Chief of Staff (1974–1975). Between his terms as secretary of defense, he served as the CEO and chairman of several companies.

Born in Illinois, Rumsfeld attended Princeton University, graduating in 1954 with a degree in political science. After serving in the Navy for three years, he mounted a campaign for Congress in Illinois's 13th Congressional District, winning in 1962 at the age of 30. Rumsfeld accepted an appointment by President Richard Nixon to head the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1969; appointed counsellor by Nixon and entitled to Cabinet-level status, he also headed up the Economic Stabilization Program before being appointed ambassador to NATO. Called back to Washington in August 1974, Rumsfeld was appointed chief of staff by President Ford. Rumsfeld recruited a young one-time staffer of his, Dick Cheney, to succeed him when Ford nominated him to be secretary of defense in 1975. When Ford lost the 1976 election, Rumsfeld returned to private business and financial life, and was named president and CEO of the pharmaceutical corporation G. D. Searle & Company. He was later named CEO of General Instrument from 1990 to 1993 and chairman of Gilead Sciences from 1997 to 2001.

Rumsfeld was appointed secretary of defense for a second time in January 2001 by President George W. Bush. As secretary of defense, Rumsfeld played a central role in the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq. Before and during the Iraq War, he claimed that Iraq had an active weapons of mass destruction program; no stockpiles were ever found. A Pentagon Inspector General report found that Rumsfeld's top policy aide "developed, produced, and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al-Qaeda relationship, which included some conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community, to senior decision-makers". Rumsfeld's tenure was controversial for its use of torture and the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. Rumsfeld gradually lost political support and resigned in late 2006. In his retirement years, he published an autobiography, Known and Unknown: A Memoir, as well as Rumsfeld's Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life.

Early life and education

Donald Henry Rumsfeld was born at St. Lukes Hospital on July 9, 1932, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Jeannette Kearsley (née Husted) and George Donald Rumsfeld. His father came from a German family that had emigrated in the 1870s from Weyhe in Lower Saxony,  but young Donald was sometimes ribbed about looking like a "tough Swiss." Growing up in Winnetka, Illinois, Rumsfeld became an Eagle Scout in 1949 and was the recipient of both the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America and its Silver Buffalo Award in 2006. Living in Winnetka, his family attended a Congregational church. From 1943 to 1945, Rumsfeld lived in Coronado, California, while his father was stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific in World War II. He was a ranger at Philmont Scout Ranch in 1949.

Rumsfeld attended Baker Demonstration School, and later graduated from New Trier High School where he excelled academically as well as in sports. In the band, the young Rumsfeld played drums and also excelled at saxophone. He attended Princeton University on academic and NROTC partial scholarships. He graduated in 1954 with an A.B. in politics after completing a senior thesis titled "The Steel Seizure Case of 1952 and Its Effects on Presidential Powers". During his time at Princeton, he was an accomplished amateur wrestler, becoming captain of the varsity wrestling team, and captain of the Lightweight Football team playing defensive back. While at Princeton he was friends with another future Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci.

Rumsfeld married Joyce P. Pierson on December 27, 1954. They had three children, six grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. He attended Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the Georgetown University Law Center, but did not take a degree from either institution.

Naval service

Rumsfeld served in the United States Navy from 1954 to 1957, as a naval aviator and flight instructor. His initial training was in the North American SNJ Texan basic trainer after which he transitioned to the T-28 advanced trainer. In 1957, he transferred to the Naval Reserve and continued his naval service in flying and administrative assignments as a drilling reservist. On July 1, 1958, he was assigned to Anti-submarine Squadron 662 at Naval Air Station Anacostia in Washington, D.C., as a selective reservist. Rumsfeld was designated aircraft commander of Anti-submarine Squadron 731 on October 1, 1960, at Naval Air Station Grosse Ile, Michigan, where he flew the S2F Tracker. He transferred to the Individual Ready Reserve when he became Secretary of Defense in 1975 and retired with the rank of captain in 1989.

Member of Congress
In 1957, during the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, Rumsfeld served as administrative assistant to David S. Dennison Jr., a Congressman representing the 11th district of Ohio. In 1959, he moved on to become a staff assistant to Congressman Robert P. Griffin of Michigan. Engaging in a two-year stint with an investment banking firm, A. G. Becker & Co., from 1960 to 1962, Rumsfeld then set his sights on becoming a member of Congress.

He was elected to the United States House of Representatives for Illinois's 13th congressional district in 1962, at the age of 30, and was re-elected by large majorities in 1964, 1966, and 1968. While in Congress, he served on the Joint Economic Committee, the Committee on Science and Aeronautics, and the Government Operations Committee, as well as on the Subcommittees on Military and Foreign Operations. He was also a co-founder of the Japanese-American Inter-Parliamentary Council in addition to being a leading cosponsor of the Freedom of Information Act.

In 1965, following the defeat of Barry Goldwater by Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 presidential election, which also led to the Republicans losing many seats in the House of Representatives, Rumsfeld proposed new leadership for the Republicans in the House, suggesting that representative Gerald Ford from Michigan's 5th congressional district was the most suited candidate to replace Charles A. Halleck as Republican leader. Rumsfeld, along with other members of the Republican caucus, then urged Ford to run for Republican leader. Ford eventually defeated Halleck and became House Minority Leader in 1965. The group of Republicans that encouraged Ford to run for the Republican leadership became known as the "Young Turks". Rumsfeld later served during Ford's presidency as his chief of staff in 1974, and was chosen by Ford to succeed James Schlesinger as United States Secretary of Defense in 1975.

During Rumsfeld's tenure as member of the U.S. House of Representatives, he voiced concerns about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, saying that President Johnson and his national security team were overconfident about how the war was being conducted. On one occasion, Rumsfeld joined with other members of the House and traveled to Vietnam for a fact-finding mission to see for themselves how the war was going. The trip led to Rumsfeld believing that the South Vietnamese government was much too dependent on the United States. Rumsfeld was also unsatisfied when he received a briefing about war planning from the commander of the U.S. troops in Vietnam, General William Westmoreland. The trip led Rumsfeld to cosponsor a resolution to bring the conduct of the war to the House floor for further debate and discussion about U.S. mismanagement of the war. However, under constant pressure from the Johnson administration, the Democrats, who at that time held the majority at the House of Representatives, blocked the resolution from consideration.

As a young Congressman, Rumsfeld attended seminars at the University of Chicago, an experience he credits with introducing him to the idea of an all volunteer military, and to the economist Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics. He later took part in Friedman's PBS series Free to Choose.

During his tenure in the House, Rumsfeld voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968,   and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Nixon administration
Rumsfeld resigned from Congress in 1969 – his fourth term – to serve in the Nixon administration in a variety of executive branch positions. Nixon appointed Rumsfeld director of the United States Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), a position with Cabinet rank. Rumsfeld had voted against the creation of OEO when he was in Congress, and, according to his 2011 memoirs, he initially rejected Nixon's offer, citing his own inherent belief that the OEO did more harm than good, and he felt that he was not the right person for the job. After much negotiation, he accepted the OEO appointment with Nixon's "assurances that he would be ... also an assistant to the President, with Cabinet-level status and an office in the White House," which "sweetened (the OEO position) with status and responsibility".

As director, Rumsfeld sought to reorganize the Office to serve what he later described in his 2011 memoir as "a laboratory for experimental programs". Several beneficial anti-poverty programs were saved by allocating funds to them from other less-successful government programs. During this time, he hired Frank Carlucci and Dick Cheney to serve under him.

He was the subject of one of writer Jack Anderson's columns, alleging that "anti-poverty czar" Rumsfeld had cut programs to aid the poor while spending thousands to redecorate his office. Rumsfeld dictated a four-page response to Anderson, labeling the accusations as falsehoods, and invited Anderson to tour his office. Despite the tour, Anderson did not retract his claims, and only much later admitted that his column was a mistake.

When Rumsfeld left OEO in December 1970, Nixon named him Counselor to the President, a general advisory position; in this role, he retained Cabinet status. He was given an office in the West Wing in 1969 and regularly interacted with the Nixon administration hierarchy. He was named director of the Economic Stabilization Program in 1970 as well, and later headed up the Cost of Living Council. In March 1971 Nixon was recorded saying about Rumsfeld "at least Rummy is tough enough" and "He's a ruthless little bastard. You can be sure of that."

In February 1973, Rumsfeld left Washington to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium. He served as the United States' Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council and the Defense Planning Committee, and the Nuclear Planning Group. In this capacity, he represented the United States in wide-ranging military and diplomatic matters, and was asked to help mediate a conflict on behalf of the United States between Cyprus and Turkey.

Ford administration

In August 1974, after Nixon resigned as president in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, Rumsfeld was called back to Washington to serve as the transition chairman for the new president, Gerald Ford. He had been Ford's confidante since their days in the House, before Ford was House minority leader and was one of the members of the "Young Turks" who played a major role in bringing Ford to Republican leadership in the House of Representatives. As the new president became settled in, Ford appointed Rumsfeld White House Chief of Staff, following Ford's appointment of General Alexander Haig to be the new Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Rumsfeld served from 1974 to 1975.

Secretary of defense (1975–1977)
In October 1975, Ford reshuffled his cabinet in the Halloween Massacre. Various newspaper and magazine articles at the time identified Rumsfeld as having orchestrated these events. Ford named Rumsfeld to succeed Schlesinger as the 13th U.S. Secretary of Defense and George H. W. Bush to become Director of Central Intelligence. According to Bob Woodward's 2002 book Bush at War, a rivalry developed between the two men and "Bush senior was convinced that Rumsfeld was pushing him out to the CIA to end his political career."

Rumsfeld's confirmation hearing as Secretary of Defense began on November 12, 1975. During the hearing, Rumsfeld was mostly asked about the administration's defense policy on the Cold War. Rumsfeld stated that the Soviet Union was a "clear and present danger," especially following the end of the Vietnam War, which Rumsfeld described as the USSR's chance to build up its domination. On November 17, 1975, Rumsfeld was confirmed as Secretary of Defense by a vote of 97–2. At the age of 43, Rumsfeld became the youngest person to serve as United States Secretary of Defense as of 2023. During his tenure as Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld oversaw the transition to an all-volunteer military. He sought to reverse the gradual decline in the defense budget and to build up U.S. strategic and conventional forces, undermining Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the SALT talks. He asserted, along with Team B (which he helped to set up), that trends in comparative U.S.-Soviet military strength had not favored the United States for 15 to 20 years and that, if continued, they "would have the effect of injecting a fundamental instability in the world". For this reason, he oversaw the development of cruise missiles, the B-1 bomber, and a major naval shipbuilding program.

Rumsfeld, who previously was assigned to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, emphasized the importance of the next stage of the space program following the successful Moon landing in 1969. While serving as Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld organized a joint-cooperation between the Department of Defense and NASA to develop Skylab. Another result of the cooperation was the Space Shuttle program.

SALT II Treaty
During his tenure as Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld worked to finish the SALT II Treaty. Rumsfeld, together with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General George S. Brown drafted the treaty. However, an agreement was not made before the 1976 election. SALT II was finished and signed during the Carter administration.

In 1977, Rumsfeld was awarded the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Kissinger, his bureaucratic adversary, later paid him a different sort of compliment, pronouncing him "a special Washington phenomenon: the skilled full-time politician-bureaucrat in whom ambition, ability, and substance fuse seamlessly".

Rumsfeld's first tenure as Secretary of Defense ended on January 20, 1977. He was succeeded by former Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown.

Business career
In early 1977 Rumsfeld briefly lectured at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. His sights instead turned to business, and from 1977 to 1985 Rumsfeld served as chief executive officer, president, and then chairman of G. D. Searle & Company, a worldwide pharmaceutical company based in Skokie, Illinois. During his tenure at Searle, Rumsfeld led the company's financial turnaround, thereby earning awards as the Outstanding Chief Executive Officer in the Pharmaceutical Industry from the Wall Street Transcript (1980) and Financial World (1981). Journalist Andrew Cockburn of Harper's Magazine claimed that Rumsfeld suppressed news that Searle's key product, aspartame, was shown to have potentially dangerous effects by leveraging old government contacts at the Food and Drug Administration. In 1985, Searle was sold to the Monsanto Company.

Rumsfeld served as chairman and chief executive officer of General Instrument from 1990 to 1993. A leader in broadband transmission, distribution, and access control technologies for cable, satellite, and terrestrial broadcasting applications, the company pioneered the development of the first all-digital high-definition television (HDTV) technology. After taking the company public and returning it to profitability, Rumsfeld returned to private business in late 1993.

From January 1997 until being sworn in as the 21st Secretary of Defense in January 2001, Rumsfeld served as chairman of Gilead Sciences, Inc. Gilead is the developer of Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), which is used in the treatment of bird flu as well as influenza A and influenza B in humans. As a result, Rumsfeld's holdings in the company grew significantly when avian flu became a subject of popular anxiety during his later term as Secretary of Defense. Following standard practice, Rumsfeld recused himself from any decisions involving Gilead, and he directed the Pentagon's general counsel to issue instructions outlining what he could and could not be involved in if there were an avian flu pandemic and the Pentagon had to respond.

Part-time public service
During his business career, Rumsfeld continued part-time public service in various posts. In November 1983, Rumsfeld was appointed special envoy to the Middle East by President Ronald Reagan, at a turbulent time in modern Middle Eastern history when Iraq was fighting Iran in the Iran–Iraq War. The United States wished for Iraq to win the conflict, and Rumsfeld was sent to the Middle East to serve as a mediator on behalf of the president.

When Rumsfeld visited Baghdad on December 20, 1983, he met Saddam Hussein at Saddam's palace and engaged a 90-minute discussion with him. They largely agreed on opposing Syria's occupation of Lebanon; preventing Syrian and Iranian expansion; and preventing arms sales to Iran. Rumsfeld suggested that if U.S.-Iraq relations could improve the U.S. might support a new oil pipeline across Jordan, which Iraq had opposed but was now willing to reconsider. Rumsfeld also informed Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz that "Our efforts to assist were inhibited by certain things that made it difficult for us ... citing the use of chemical weapons."

Rumsfeld wrote in his memoir Known and Unknown that his meeting with Hussein "has been the subject of gossip, rumors, and crackpot conspiracy theories for more than a quarter of a century ... Supposedly I had been sent to see Saddam by President Reagan either to negotiate a secret oil deal, to help arm Iraq, or to make Iraq an American client state. The truth is that our encounter was more straightforward and less dramatic." The Washington Post reported that "Although former U.S. officials agree that Rumsfeld was not one of the architects of the Reagan administration's tilt toward Iraq—he was a private citizen when he was appointed Middle East envoy—the documents show that his visits to Baghdad led to closer U.S.–Iraqi cooperation on a wide variety of fronts."

In addition to taking the position of Middle East envoy, Rumsfeld served as a member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control (1982–1986); President Reagan's special envoy on the Law of the Sea Treaty (1982–1983); a senior adviser to President Reagan's Panel on Strategic Systems (1983–1984); a member of the Joint Advisory Commission on U.S./Japan Relations (1983–1984); a member of the National Commission on the Public Service (1987–1990); a member of the National Economic Commission (1988–1989); a member of the board of visitors of the National Defense University (1988–1992); a member of the FCC's High Definition Television Advisory Committee (1992–1993); a member of the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission (1999–2000); a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and chairman of the U.S. Commission to Assess National Security Space Management and Organization (2000). Among his most noteworthy positions was chairman of the nine-member Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States from January to July 1998. In its findings, the commission concluded that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea could develop intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities in five to ten years and that U.S. intelligence would have little warning before such systems were deployed.

During the 1980s, Rumsfeld became a member of the National Academy of Public Administration, and was named a member of the boards of trustees of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the National Park Foundation. He was also a member of the U.S./Russia Business Forum and chairman of the Congressional Leadership's National Security Advisory Group. Rumsfeld was a member of the Project for the New American Century, a think-tank dedicated to maintaining U.S. primacy. In addition, he was asked to serve the U.S. State Department as a foreign policy consultant from 1990 to 1993. Though considered one of the Bush administration's staunchest hard-liners against North Korea, Rumsfeld sat on European engineering giant Asea Brown Boveri's board from 1990 to 2001, a company that sold two light-water nuclear reactors to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization for installation in North Korea, as part of the 1994 agreed framework reached under President Bill Clinton. Rumsfeld's office said that he did not "recall it being brought before the board at any time" though Fortune magazine reported that "board members were informed about this project". The Bush administration repeatedly criticized the 1994 agreement and the former Clinton presidency for its softness towards North Korea, regarding the country as a state sponsor of terrorism, and later designated North Korea as part of the Axis-of-Evil.

Presidential and vice-presidential aspirations
During the 1976 Republican National Convention, Rumsfeld received one vote for Vice President of the United States, although he did not seek the office, and the nomination was easily won by Ford's choice, Senator Bob Dole. During the 1980 Republican National Convention he again received one vote for vice president.

Rumsfeld briefly sought the presidential nomination in 1988, but withdrew from the race before primaries began. During the 1996 election season, he initially formed a presidential exploratory committee, but declined to formally enter the race. He was instead named national chairman for Republican nominee Bob Dole's campaign.

Secretary of Defense (2001–2006)

Rumsfeld was named Secretary of Defense soon after President George W. Bush took office in 2001 despite Rumsfeld's past rivalry with the previous President Bush. Bush's first choice, FedEx founder Fred Smith, was unavailable and Vice President-elect Cheney recommended Rumsfeld for the job. Rumsfeld's second tenure as Secretary of Defense cemented him as the most powerful Pentagon chief since Robert McNamara and one of the most influential Cabinet members in the Bush administration. His tenure proved to be a pivotal and rocky one that led the United States military into the 21st century. Following the September 11 attacks, Rumsfeld led the military planning and execution of the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent 2003 invasion of Iraq. He pushed hard to send as small a force as soon as possible to both conflicts, a concept codified as the Rumsfeld Doctrine.

Throughout his time as defense secretary, Rumsfeld was noted for his candor and quick wit when giving weekly press conferences or speaking with the press. U.S. News & World Report called him "a straight-talking Midwesterner" who "routinely has the press corps doubled over in fits of laughter". By the same token, his leadership was exposed to much criticism through books covering the Iraq conflict, like Bob Woodward's State of Denial, Thomas E. Ricks' Fiasco, and Seymour Hersh's Chain of Command.

September 11, 2001 attacks

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked commercial airliners and crashed them in coordinated strikes into both towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and its target was likely a prominent building in Washington, D.C., most probably either the U.S. Capitol Building or the White House. Within three hours of the start of the first hijacking and two hours after American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center, Rumsfeld raised the defense condition signaling of the United States offensive readiness to DEFCON 3, the highest it had been since the Arab–Israeli war in 1973.

Rumsfeld addressed the nation in a press conference at the Pentagon, just eight hours after the attacks and stated, "It's an indication that the United States government is functioning in the face of this terrible act against our country. I should add that the briefing here is taking place in the Pentagon. The Pentagon's functioning. It will be in business tomorrow."

Military decisions in the wake of 9/11

On the afternoon of September 11, Rumsfeld issued rapid orders to his aides to look for evidence of possible Iraqi involvement in regard to what had just occurred, according to notes taken by senior policy official Stephen Cambone. "Best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H." – meaning Saddam Hussein – "at same time. Not only UBL" (Osama bin Laden), Cambone's notes quoted Rumsfeld as saying. "Need to move swiftly – Near term target needs – go massive – sweep it all up. Things related and not."

In the first emergency meeting of the National Security Council on the day of the attacks, Rumsfeld asked, "Why shouldn't we go against Iraq, not just al-Qaeda?" with his deputy Paul Wolfowitz adding that Iraq was a "brittle, oppressive regime that might break easily—it was doable," and, according to John Kampfner, "from that moment on, he and Wolfowitz used every available opportunity to press the case." President George W. Bush reacted to Rumsfeld's suggestion, "Wait a minute, I didn't hear a word said about him (Saddam Hussein) being responsible for the attack" and the idea was initially rejected at the behest of Secretary of State Colin Powell, but, according to Kampfner, "Undeterred Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz held secret meetings about opening up a second front—against Saddam. Powell was excluded." In such meetings they created a policy that would later be dubbed the Bush Doctrine, centering on "pre-emption" and the war on Iraq, which the PNAC had advocated in their earlier letters.

Richard A. Clarke, the White House counter-terrorism coordinator at the time, has revealed details of another National Security Council meeting the day after the attacks, during which officials considered the U.S. response. Already, he said, they were certain al-Qa'ida was to blame and there was no hint of Iraqi involvement. "Rumsfeld was saying we needed to bomb Iraq," according to Clarke. Clarke then stated, "We all said, 'No, no, al-Qa'ida is in Afghanistan. Clarke also revealed that Rumsfeld complained in the meeting, "there aren't any good targets in Afghanistan and there are lots of good targets in Iraq." Rumsfeld even suggested to attack other countries like Libya and Sudan, arguing that if this was to be a truly "global war on terror" then all state sponsors of terrorism should be dealt with.

Rumsfeld wrote in Known and Unknown, "Much has been written about the Bush administration's focus on Iraq after 9/11. Commentators have suggested that it was strange or obsessive for the President and his advisers to have raised questions about whether Saddam Hussein was somehow behind the attack. I have never understood the controversy. I had no idea if Iraq was or was not involved, but it would have been irresponsible for any administration not to have asked the question."

A memo written by Rumsfeld dated November 27, 2001, considers an Iraq war. One section of the memo questions "How start?", listing multiple possible justifications for a U.S.-Iraq War.

War in Afghanistan

Rumsfeld directed the planning for the War in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks. On September 21, 2001, USCENTCOM Commander General Tommy Franks, briefed the President on a plan to destroy al Qaeda in Afghanistan and remove the Taliban government. General Franks, also initially proposed to Rumsfeld that the U.S. invade Afghanistan using a conventional force of 60,000 troops, preceded by six months of preparation. Rumsfeld, however feared that a conventional invasion of Afghanistan could bog down as had happened to the Soviets in the Soviet–Afghan War and the 1842 retreat from Kabul by the British. Rumsfeld rejected Franks's plan, saying "I want men on the ground now!" Franks returned the next day with a plan utilizing U.S. Special Forces. Despite air and missile attacks against al Qaeda in Afghanistan, USCENTCOM had no pre-existing plans for conducting ground operations there.

The September 21, 2001 plan emerged after extensive dialogue, but Secretary Rumsfeld also asked for broader plans that looked beyond Afghanistan.

On October 7, 2001, just hours after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was launched, Rumsfeld addressed the nation in a press conference at the Pentagon stating "While our raids today focus on the Taliban and the foreign terrorists in Afghanistan, our aim remains much broader. Our objective is to defeat those who use terrorism and those who house or support them. The world stands united in this effort".

Rumsfeld also stated "the only way to deal with these terrorist threats is to go at them where they exist. You cannot defend at every place at every time against every conceivable, imaginable, even unimaginable terrorist attack. And the only way to deal with it is to take the battle to where they are and to root them out and to starve them out by seeing that those countries and those organizations and those non-governmental organizations and those individuals that are supporting and harboring and facilitating these networks stop doing it and find that there's a penalty for doing it".

Rumsfeld in another press conference at the Pentagon on October 29, 2001, stated "As the first weeks of this effort proceed, it bears repeating that our goal is not to reduce or simply contain terrorist acts, but our goal is to deal with it comprehensively. And we do not intend to stop until we've rooted out terrorist networks and put them out of business, not just in the case of the Taliban and the Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, but other networks as well. And as I've mentioned, the Al Qaeda network crosses some 40, 50-plus countries."

Rumsfeld announced in November 2001, that he received "authoritative reports" that Al-Qaeda's number three Mohammed Atef, bin Laden's primary military chief and a planner of the September 11 attacks on America, was killed by a U.S. airstrike. "He was very, very senior," Rumsfeld said. "We obviously have been seeking [him] out."

In a press conference at the Pentagon on November 19, 2001, Rumsfeld described the role of U.S. ground forces in Afghanistan as firstly in the north, American troops are "embedded in Northern Alliance" elements, helping arrange food and medical supplies and pinpointing airstrikes and in the south, commandos and other troops are operating more independently, raiding compounds, monitoring roadblocks and searching vehicles in the hope of developing more information about al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. On December 16, 2001, Rumsfeld visited U.S. troops in Afghanistan at Bagram Air Base.

On March 15, 2002, in another press conference at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld commented on the mission of Operation Anaconda by stating "Operation Anaconda continues in the area south of Gardez in eastern Afghanistan. The fighting is winding down as you know. Coalition forces are for the most part in an exploitation phase, doing the difficult work of searching caves and clearing areas where the battles and fighting has taken place. Our forces are finding weapons, ammunition, some intelligence information. In the top 25 al Qaeda, we know some are dead and we know some may be dead; we know some are captured and there are a larger number that we don't know. And roughly the same proportions with respect to Taliban".

On May 1, 2003, Rumsfeld during a visit to Afghanistan meeting with U.S. troops stationed in Kabul told the press "General Franks and I have been looking at the progress that's being made in this country and have concluded that we are at a point where we clearly have moved from major combat activity to a period of stability and stabilization and reconstruction and activities." "I should underline however, that there are still dangers, there are still pockets of resistance in certain parts of the country and General McNeal and General Franks and their, the cooperation they have with the President Karzai's government and leadership and Marshall Fayheems assistance. We will be continuing as a country to work with the Afghan government and the new Afghan National Army to see that the any areas where there is resistance to this government and to the coalition forces will be dealt with promptly and efficiently."

There was also controversy between the Pentagon and the CIA over who had the authority to fire Hellfire missiles from Predator drones. Even though the drones were not ready for deployment until 2002, Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon have argued that "these quarrels kept the Predator from being used against al Qaeda ... One anonymous individual who was at the center of the action called this episode 'typical' and complained that 'Rumsfeld never missed an opportunity to fail to cooperate. The fact is, the Secretary of Defense is an obstacle. He has helped the terrorists.'

In December 2005, Rumsfeld again visited Kabul and met with the Afghan defense minister, Rahim Wardak. During the meeting, Rumsfeld expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the Afghan army and attributed the worsening situation in Afghanistan to ineffective governance. He criticized the longstanding plan to expand the Afghan army to 70,000 troops and requested a reduction in the size of the Afghan army to 52,000 at most, claiming that this was necessary to "suit Afghanistan's limited revenues." Shortly after the trip, Rumsfeld also withdrew 3,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan and canceled the planned deployment of one army brigade headed there.

In 2009, three years after Rumsfeld's tenure as Defense secretary ended, the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations led an investigation into the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, during the early phase of the U.S-led coalition war in Afghanistan. They concluded that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and General Franks had not committed enough troops during the battle to secure the area around Tora Bora. They believed that Al-Qaeda's number one leader Osama bin Laden had likely been at Tora Bora and his escape prolonged the war in Afghanistan. Rumsfeld and Franks were apparently motivated by fear that a substantial American presence near Tora Bora could incite a rebellion by local Pashtuns, despite the latter's lack of organizational capability at the time and the fierce dissent voiced by many CIA analysts including Charles E. Allen (who warned Franks that "the back door [to Pakistan ] was open") and Gary Berntsen (who called for army rangers to "kill this baby in the crib"). Instead of rangers or marines, the U.S. assault on Tora Bora relied on the CIA-backed Afghan militias of Hazrat Ali and Zahir Qadeer, supplemented with B-52 bombardment. The resulting influx of hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters into Pakistan destabilized the country and damaged Pakistan–United States relations. The follow-up Operation Anaconda "witnessed failures of planning and execution, the product of the fractured lines of command," as recounted by Steve Coll. In mid-2002, Rumsfeld announced that "The war is over in Afghanistan," to the disbelief of State Department, CIA, and military officials in the country. As a result, Rumsfeld downplayed the need for an Afghan army of even 70,000 troops, far fewer than the 250,000 envisaged by Karzai.

Iraq War

Before and during the Iraq War, Rumsfeld claimed that Iraq had an active weapons of mass destruction program; in particular during his famous phrase "there are known knowns" in a press conference at the Pentagon on February 12, 2002, no stockpiles were ever found. Bush administration officials also claimed that there was an operational relationship between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. A Pentagon Inspector General report found that Rumsfeld's top policy aide, Douglas J. Feith, "developed, produced, and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al-Qaeda relationship, which included some conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community, to senior decision-makers".

The job of finding WMD and providing justification for the attack fell to the intelligence services, but, according to Kampfner, "Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz believed that, while the established security services had a role, they were too bureaucratic and too traditional in their thinking." As a result, "they set up what came to be known as the 'cabal', a cell of eight or nine analysts in a new Office of Special Plans (OSP) based in the U.S. Defense Department." According to an unnamed Pentagon source quoted by Hersh, the OSP "was created in order to find evidence of what Wolfowitz and his boss, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, believed to be true—that Saddam Hussein had close ties to Al Qaeda, and that Iraq had an enormous arsenal of chemical, biological, and possibly even nuclear weapons that threatened the region and, potentially, the United States".

On January 22, 2003, after the German and French governments voiced opposition to invading Iraq, Rumsfeld labeled these countries as part of "Old Europe", implying that countries that supported the war were part of a newer, modern Europe.

After the war in Afghanistan was launched, Rumsfeld participated in a meeting in regard to the review of the Department of Defense's Contingency Plan in the event of a war with Iraq. The plan, as it was then conceived, contemplated troop levels of up to 500,000, which Rumsfeld felt was far too many. Gordon and Trainor wrote:

"As [General] Newbold outlined the plan ... it was clear that Rumsfeld was growing increasingly irritated. For Rumsfeld, the plan required too many troops and supplies and took far too long to execute. It was, Rumsfeld declared, the 'product of old thinking and the embodiment of everything that was wrong with the military'."

In a press conference at the Pentagon on February 27, 2003, Rumsfeld told reporters after being asked a question that Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki suggested it would take several hundred thousand troops on the ground to secure Iraq and provide stability. Is he wrong?. Rumsfeld replied "the idea that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. forces I think is far from the mark. The reality is that we already have a number of countries that have offered to participate with their forces in stabilization activities, in the event force has to be used."

Rumsfeld addressed the nation in a press conference at the Pentagon on March 20, 2003, just hours after the launch of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, where he announced the first strike of the war to liberate Iraq and that "The days of the Saddam Hussein regime are numbered," and "We continue to feel there is no need for a broader conflict if the Iraqi leaders act to save themselves and act to prevent such a conflict."

Rumsfeld's role in directing the Iraq War included a plan that was the Shock and Awe campaign, which resulted in a lightning invasion with 145,000 soldiers on the ground that took Baghdad in well under a month with very few American casualties. Many government buildings, plus major museums, electrical generation infrastructure, and even oil equipment were looted and vandalized during the transition from the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime to the establishment of the Coalition Provisional Authority. A violent insurrection began shortly after the military operation started.

On March 30, 2003, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week program, Rumsfeld answered a question by Stephanopoulos about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Rumsfeld stated "We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

On April 9, 2003, at a press conference at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld addressed reporters during the Fall of Baghdad, and stated "The scenes of free Iraqis celebrating in the streets, riding American tanks, tearing down the statues of Saddam Hussein in the center of Baghdad are breathtaking."

After the Iraq invasion, U.S. troops were criticized for not protecting the historical artifacts and treasures located at the National Museum of Iraq. On April 11, 2003, at a press conference at the Pentagon, when asked at the time why U.S. troops did not actively seek to stop the lawlessness, Rumsfeld replied, "Stuff happens ... and it's untidy and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here." He further commented that, "The images you are seeing on television you are seeing over, and over, and over, and it's the same picture of some person walking out of some building with a vase, and you see it 20 times, and you think, "My goodness, were there that many vases?"

On July 24, 2003, at a press conference at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld commented on the release of photographs of the deceased sons of Saddam Hussein, Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein. "It is not a practice that the United States engages in on a normal basis," Rumsfeld said. "I honestly believe that these two are particularly bad characters and that it's important for the Iraqi people to see them, to know they're gone, to know they're dead, and to know they're not coming back." Rumsfeld also said, "I feel it was the right decision, and I'm glad I made it."

In October 2003, Rumsfeld approved a secret Pentagon "roadmap" on public relations, calling for "boundaries" between information operations abroad and the news media at home. The Roadmap advances a policy according to which as long as the U.S. government does not intentionally target the American public, it does not matter that psychological operations reach the American public.

On December 14, 2003, Rumsfeld in an interview with journalist Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes after U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein in Operation Red Dawn, stated, "Here was a man who was photographed hundreds of times shooting off rifles and showing how tough he was, and in fact, he wasn't very tough, he was cowering in a hole in the ground, and had a pistol and didn't use it, and certainly did not put up any fight at all. I think that ... he resulted in the death of an awful lot of Iraqi people, in the last analysis, he seemed not terribly brave."

As Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld was deliberate in crafting the public message from the Department of Defense. People will "rally" to the word "sacrifice", Rumsfeld noted after a meeting. "They are looking for leadership. Sacrifice = Victory." In May 2004, Rumsfeld considered whether to redefine the war on terrorism as a fight against "worldwide insurgency". He advised aides "to test what the results could be" if the war on terrorism were renamed. Rumsfeld also ordered specific public Pentagon attacks on and responses to U.S. newspaper columns that reported the negative aspects of the war.

During Rumsfeld's tenure, he regularly visited U.S. troops stationed in Iraq.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that though Rumsfeld didn't specify a withdrawal date for troops in Iraq, "He says it would be unrealistic to wait for Iraq to be peaceful before removing U.S. led forces from the country, adding that Iraq had never been peaceful and perfect."

On August 2, 2006, at a press conference at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld commented on the sectarian violence in Iraq where he stated "there's sectarian violence; people are being killed. Sunnis are killing Shi'a and Shi'a are killing Sunnis. Kurds seem not to be involved. It's unfortunate, and they need a reconciliation process."

On October 26, 2006, at a press conference at the Pentagon after the failure of Operation Together Forward in Iraq, Rumsfeld stated "Would defeat in Iraq be so bad?" Well, the answer is: Yes, it would be. Those who are fighting against the Iraqi government want to seize power so that they can establish a new sanctuary and a base of operations for terrorists and any idea that U.S. military leaders are rigidly refusing to make adjustments in their approaches is just flat wrong. The military is continuing to adapt and to adjust as required. Yes, there are difficulties and problems to be sure."

As a result, Rumsfeld stirred controversy as to whether the forces that did invade Iraq were enough in size. In 2006, Rumsfeld responded to a question by Brit Hume of Fox News as to whether he pressed General Tommy Franks to lower his request for 400,000 troops for the war:

"Absolutely not. That's a mythology. This town [Washington, D.C.] is filled with this kind of nonsense. The people who decide the levels of forces on the ground are not the Secretary of Defense or the President. We hear recommendations, but the recommendations are made by the combatant commanders and by members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and there hasn't been a minute in the last six years when we have not had the number of troops that the combatant commanders have requested."

Rumsfeld told Hume that Franks ultimately decided against such a troop level.

Throughout his tenure, Rumsfeld sought to remind the American people of the 9/11 attacks and threats against Americans, noting at one time in a 2006 memo to "[m]ake the American people realize they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists". According to a report by The Guardian, Rumsfeld was allegedly including biblical quotes in top secret briefing papers to appeal George W Bush, known for his devout religious beliefs, to invade Iraq as more like "holy war" or "a religious crusade" against Muslims.

In a September 2007 interview with The Daily Telegraph, General Mike Jackson, the head of the British army during the invasion, criticized Rumsfeld's plans for the invasion of Iraq as "intellectually bankrupt", adding that Rumsfeld is "one of those most responsible for the current situation in Iraq", and that he felt that "the US approach to combating global terrorism is 'inadequate' and too focused on military might rather than nation building and diplomacy."

In December 2004, Rumsfeld was heavily criticized for using a signing machine instead of personally signing over 1000 letters of condolence to the families of soldiers killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan. He promised to personally sign all letters in the future.

Prisoner abuse and torture concerns
The Department of Defense's preliminary concerns for holding, housing, and interrogating captured prisoners on the battlefield were raised during the military build-up prior to the Iraq War. Because Saddam Hussein's military forces surrendered when faced with military action, many within the DOD, including Rumsfeld and United States Central Command General Tommy Franks, decided it was in the best interest of all to hand these prisoners over to their respective countries. Additionally, it was determined that maintaining a large holding facility was, at the time, unrealistic. Instead, the use of many facilities such as Abu Ghraib to house prisoners of interest prior to handing them over, and Rumsfeld defended the Bush administration's decision to detain enemy combatants. Because of this, critics, including members of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, held Rumsfeld responsible for the ensuing Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. Rumsfeld himself said: "These events occurred on my watch as Secretary of Defense. I am accountable for them." He offered his resignation to President Bush in the wake of the scandal, but it was not accepted.

In a memo read by Rumsfeld detailing how Guantanamo Bay detention camp interrogators induced stress in prisoners by forcing them to remain standing in one position for a maximum of four hours, Rumsfeld scrawled a handwritten note on the memo reading: "I stand for 8–10 hours a day. Why is standing [by prisoners] limited to 4 hours? D.R."

Various organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, called for investigations of Rumsfeld regarding his involvement in managing the Iraq War and his support of the Bush administration's policies of "enhanced interrogation techniques", which are widely regarded as torture.

Legal scholars have argued that Rumsfeld "might be held criminally responsible if [he] would be prosecuted by the ICC". In 2005 the ACLU and Human Rights First filed a lawsuit against Rumsfeld and other top government officials, "on behalf of eight men who they say were subjected to torture and abuse by U.S. forces under the command of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld".

In 2005, a suit was filed against Rumsfeld by several human rights organizations for allegedly violating U.S. and international law that prohibits "torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment". Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel filed suit against the U.S. government and Rumsfeld on similar grounds, alleging that they were tortured and their rights of habeas corpus were violated. In 2007, U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled that Rumsfeld could not "be held personally responsible for actions taken in connection with his government job". The ACLU tried to revive the case in 2011 with no success.

In 2004, German prosecutor Wolfgang Kaleck filed a criminal complaint charging Rumsfeld and 11 other U.S. officials as war criminals who either ordered the torture of prisoners or drafted laws that legitimated its use. The charges based on breaches of the UN Convention against Torture and the German Code of Crimes against International Law.

Resignation

Eight U.S. and other NATO-member retired generals and admirals called for Rumsfeld to resign in early 2006 in what was called the "Generals Revolt", accusing him of "abysmal" military planning and lack of strategic competence.

Commentator Pat Buchanan reported at the time that Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who traveled often to Iraq and supported the war, said the generals "mirror the views of 75 percent of the officers in the field, and probably more". Rumsfeld rebuffed these criticisms, stating, "out of thousands and thousands of admirals and generals, if every time two or three people disagreed we changed the secretary of defense of the United States, it would be like a merry-go-round." Bush defended Rumsfeld throughout and responded by stating that Rumsfeld is "exactly what is needed".

On November 1, 2006, Bush stated he would stand by Rumsfeld as defense secretary for the length of his term as president. Rumsfeld wrote a resignation letter dated November 6, 2006, and, per the stamp on the letter, Bush saw it on Election Day, November 7, 2006. In the elections, the House and the Senate shifted to Democratic control. After the elections on November 8, 2006, Bush announced Rumsfeld would resign his position as Secretary of Defense. Many Republicans were unhappy with the delay, believing they would have won more votes if voters had known Rumsfeld was resigning.

Bush nominated Robert Gates to succeed Rumsfeld. On December 15, 2006, a farewell ceremony, with an armed forces full honor review and a 19-gun salute, was held at the Pentagon Mall Terrace in honor of the departing Rumsfeld.

Retirement and later life (2006–2021)

In the months after his resignation, Rumsfeld toured the New York City publishing houses in preparation for a potential memoir. After receiving what one industry source labeled "big bids", he reached an agreement with the Penguin Group to publish the book under its Sentinel HC imprint. Rumsfeld declined to accept an advance for the publication of his memoir, and said he was donating all proceeds from the work to veterans groups. His book, entitled Known and Unknown: A Memoir, was released on February 8, 2011.

In conjunction with the publication of Known and Unknown, Rumsfeld established "The Rumsfeld Papers", a website with documents "related to the endnotes" of the book and his service during the George W. Bush administration; during the months that followed the book's publication, the website was expanded to include over 4,000 documents from his archive. As of June 2011, the topics included his Congressional voting record, the Nixon administration, documents and memos of meetings while he was part of the Ford, Reagan, and George W. Bush administrations, private sector documents, and NATO documents, among other items.

In 2007, Rumsfeld established The Rumsfeld Foundation, which focuses on encouraging public service in the United States and supporting the growth of free political and free economic systems abroad. The educational foundation provides fellowships to talented individuals from the private sector who want to serve for some time in government. Rumsfeld personally financed the foundation. As of January 2014, the foundation had sponsored over 90 fellows from Central Asia, provided over million in tuition and stipend support for graduate students, awarded over  million in microfinance grants, and donated over  million to charities for veterans' affairs.

Rumsfeld was awarded the "Defender of the Constitution Award" at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., on February 10, 2011.

After his retirement from government, Rumsfeld criticized former fellow Cabinet member Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, in his memoir, asserting that she was basically unfit for office. In 2011, she responded, saying that Rumsfeld "doesn't know what he's talking about. The reader may imagine what can be correct about the conflicted matter."

In February 2011, Rumsfeld endorsed the repeal of the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, saying that allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve "is an idea whose time has come".

In March 2011, Rumsfeld spoke out on the 2011 military intervention in Libya, telling ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper that the Obama administration should "recognize the mission has to determine the coalition. The coalition ought not determine the mission." Rumsfeld also used the word "confusion" six times to describe the United Nations-backed military effort in Libya.

In October 2011, Rumsfeld conducted an interview with Al Jazeera's Washington, D.C., bureau chief Abderrahim Foukara. Foukara asked Rumsfeld whether, in hindsight, the Bush administration had sent enough troops into Iraq to secure the borders of the country, and whether that made the United States culpable in the death of innocent Iraqis. Foukara said people in the Pentagon told Rumsfeld the number of troops sent into Iraq was insufficient. Rumsfeld said, "You keep making assertions which are fundamentally false. No one in the Pentagon said they were not enough." Foukara pressed Rumsfeld repeatedly. Rumsfeld then asked, "Do you want to yell or do you want to have an interview?" Foukara then asked, "Do you think the numbers that you went to Iraq with did absolve you from the responsibility of tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis killed by the Coalition and those criminals that you talked about?" Rumsfeld called the question "pejorative" and said Foukara was "not being respectful" (Foukara disagreed) and was "just talking over, and over, and over again".

Rumsfeld was the subject of the 2013 Errol Morris documentary The Unknown Known, the title a reference to his response to a question at a February 2002 press conference. In the film Rumsfeld "discusses his career in Washington D.C. from his days as a congressman in the early 1960s to planning the invasion of Iraq in 2003".

In January 2016, in partnership with the literary and creative agency Javelin, which handled design and development, Rumsfeld released a mobile app game of solitaire called Churchill Solitaire, emulating a variant of the card game as played by Winston Churchill. Rumsfeld and the Churchill family said that profits from the game would be donated to charity.

In June 2016, Rumsfeld announced that he would vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

On January 5, 2021, Rumsfeld was one of the ten living former Secretaries of Defense that sent a warning letter in order to warn President Trump not to involve the military in a 2020 presidential election dispute.

Death
On June 29, 2021, Rumsfeld died from multiple myeloma at his home in Taos, New Mexico. Following a private funeral at Fort Myer, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on August 24, 2021.

Electoral history

During the four elections during which he ran to represent Illinois's 13th congressional district, Rumsfeld received shares of the popular vote that ranged from 58% (in 1964) to 76% (in 1966). In 1975 and 2001, Rumsfeld was overwhelmingly confirmed by the U.S. Senate after presidents Gerald Ford and George W. Bush, respectively, appointed him as U.S. Secretary of Defense.

Awards

Rumsfeld was awarded 11 honorary degrees. Following his years as CEO, president, and later chairman of G. D. Searle & Company, he was recognized as Outstanding CEO in the pharmaceutical industry by The Wall Street Transcript (1980) and Financial World (1981).

Some of his other awards included:

 * All Navy Wrestling Champion (1956)
 * Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (1983)
 * George C. Marshall Medal by the Association of the U.S. Army (1984)
 * Woodrow Wilson Medal by Princeton University (1985)
 * Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal (1993)
 * Lone Sailor Award by the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation (2002)
 * Statesmanship Award by the United States Association of Former Members of Congress (2003)
 * Ronald Reagan Freedom Award (2003)
 * James H. Doolittle Award by the Hudson Institute (2003)
 * Gerald R. Ford Medal presented by President Ford and the Ford Foundation (2004)
 * Distinguished Eagle Scout Award by the Boy Scouts of America (1976)
 * Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor (2004) for his appearance in Fahrenheit 9/11
 * Union League of Philadelphia Gold Medal for Citizenship (2006)
 * Claremont Institute Statesmanship Award (2007)
 * Victory of Freedom Award from the Richard Nixon Foundation (2010)
 * Order of Anthony Wayne from Valley Forge Military Academy
 * National Flag award from Albania's President Bujar Nishani (2013)

Legacy and reputation
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger described Rumsfeld as "the most ruthless man" he knew. George Packer of The Atlantic named Rumsfeld "the worst secretary of defense in American history" who "lacked the wisdom to change his mind." Bradley Graham, a Washington Post reporter and author of the book titled By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld released on June 23, 2009, stated "Rumsfeld left office as one of the most controversial Defense Secretaries since Robert McNamara and widely criticized for his management of the Iraq war and for his difficult relationships with Congress, administration colleagues, and military officers." Neoconservative commentator Bill Kristol was also critical of Rumsfeld, stating he "breezily dodged responsibility" for planning mistakes made in the Iraq War, including insufficient troop levels.

Institutional affiliations

 * Center for Security Policy: longtime associate; winner of the CSP's 1998 "Keeper of the Flame" award (5)
 * Hoover Institution: former member, board of trustees
 * Project for the New American Century: signed PNAC's founding statement of principles as well as two policy letters on Iraq
 * Freedom House: former board member
 * RAND Corporation: former chairman
 * Committee for the Free World: former chairman
 * National Park Foundation: former member
 * Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships: former chairman
 * Bohemian Club: member
 * Alfalfa Club: member
 * National Academy of Public Administration: member

Government posts, panels, and commissions

 * Secretary of Defense (2001–06)
 * U.S. Commission to Assess National Security Space Management and Organization: chairman (2000)
 * U.S. Trade Deficit Reviews Commission: member (1999–2000)
 * Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States: chairman (1998)
 * National Commission on Public Service: member (1987–1990)
 * National Economic Commission: member (1988–1989)
 * President Reagan's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control: member (1982–1986)
 * U.S. Joint Advisory Commission on U.S./Japan Relations: member (1983–1984)
 * Presidential Envoy to the Middle East, Reagan administration (1983–1984)
 * Presidential Envoy on the Law of the Sea Treaty, Reagan administration (1982–1983)
 * Secretary of Defense (1975–77)
 * White House Chief of Staff in Ford administration (1974–75)
 * U.S. Ambassador to NATO (1973–74)
 * U.S. Congress: Representative from Illinois (1962–69)
 * United States Navy: Various posts, including aviator (1954–57); reserves (1957–1975); retired as a navy captain (1989)

Corporate connections and business interests

 * Eastern Air Lines: former director – The annual reports of Eastern Air Lines disclose that Donald Rumsfeld was a member of Eastern Air Lines board of directors.
 * Gilead Sciences: Joined Gilead as a director in 1988, chairman (1997–2001)
 * General Instrument: chairman and CEO (1990–93)
 * G. D. Searle & Company: CEO/chairman/president (1977–1985)
 * Gulfstream Aerospace: director
 * Tribune Company: director
 * Metricom: director
 * Sears: director
 * ABB: director
 * Kellogg's: director 1985–1999 while Carlos Gutierrez (ex Cuba 1960) was president, CEO and chairman of Kellogg until named Secretary of Commerce under Bush from 2005.
 * RAND Corporation: chairman of the board from 1981 to 1986; 1995–1996
 * Amylin Pharmaceuticals: director

Education

 * Princeton University: A.B. (1954)

Works

 * Speech given March 3, 1998, in Washington, D.C.

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title: Donald Rumsfeld