Another individual with whom Rumsfeld had sharp differences was former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Rumsfeld didn`t think much of Kissinger`s habit of throwing tantrums when other officials sought to have a voice in foreign policy, and he urged Ford to seek a broader range of opinions on world affairs.
Unhappy with the public perception, which the secretary of state did little to discourage, that Kissinger instead of Ford was conducting the nation`s foreign policy, Rumsfeld deflated Kissinger`s role at a NATO summit conference. On Air Force One, Rumsfeld assumed Kissinger`s normal role as the ”senior American official” who briefed reporters about the summit meeting. According to White House associates, Rumsfeld sold Ford on the idea that Kissinger, who was then serving as national security adviser and secretary of state, should give up one of his two hats. Kissinger was forced to give up the adviser post when Ford fired James Schlesinger as secretary of defense, replacing him with Rumsfeld, and replaced CIA director William Colby with George Bush.
Although Rumsfeld`s term as secretary of defense was cut short after little more than a year when Jimmy Carter defeated Ford in the 1976 presidential election, he had major impact during his brief term.
He proved to be a much more formidable adversary for Kissinger than Schlesinger had been because he had Ford`s friendship and support. Ford didn`t like Schlesinger, whom he considered arrogant and patronizing, and usually sided with Kissinger in showdowns with the defense secretary. But with Rumsfeld moving to the Pentagon, Kissinger lost his advantage and found himself facing an opponent with political clout greater than his own. At Rumsfeld`s swearing-in ceremonies, Kissinger quipped that he should have an aide taste the punch to make certain that Rumsfeld wasn`t trying to poison him. In his memoirs, Ford disclosed that it was Rumsfeld who persuaded him to reject the draft of the Salt II treaty in 1976 that Kissinger was negotiating with the Soviet Union. Rumsfeld bristled at the suggestion that the treaty should be signed as Kissinger`s crowning achievement. ”Strategic arms are a little more important in our world than capping people`s careers, frankly,”
Rumsfeld said. Kissinger, who has never been accused of having a thick skin, returned the favor by ignoring Rumsfeld in his two-volume memoirs. In 1979 Rumsfeld testified against the Salt II treaty negotiated by the Carter administration, which Ford and Kissinger supported.
Not long after becoming defense secretary, Rumsfeld decided to spot-test the emergency hotline to the president. Rumsfeld told associates that instead of Ford, a White House telephone operator answered the phone, and he was put on hold for 10 minutes. When the operator came back on the line, she told Rumsfeld that she was trying to find the director of the military office. As a result of Rumsfeld`s phone call, a more direct hotline from the Pentagon to the president was established. In moving into the Pentagon, Rumsfeld issued a new set of rules for his chief deputies, including a reminder that ”The Secretary of Defense is not supposed to be a `Super General or Admiral.`
Rather, the task is to exercise civilian control over the Department on behalf of the Commander in Chief and the country. Don`t get confused.”
Rumsfeld improved the defense department`s strained relations with senators and congressmen, which helped gain approval for his defense build-up efforts. By calling attention to gains in Soviet military power, Rumsfeld won approval for his build-up. But in the process, some political associates have suggested, he may have undercut Ford`s chances for re-election with his argument that Fortress America was vulnerable. Reagan made it a major theme against Ford in the GOP primaries. But Rumsfeld fought hard to make the case for Ford. He was the most political defense secretary in years, making appearances in states with large defense installations that also happened to be holding Republican primaries. Rumsfeld`s efforts were designed to help Ford beat Reagan for the GOP nomination. Rumsfeld also helped Ford in the general election and was bitterly disappointed by his loss to Carter, whom he came to dislike intensely because of the Democrat`s cutbacks of some of Rumsfeld`s defense programs.
Not everyone gave Rumsfeld high marks for his work at the Pentagon. A 1979 Armed Forces Journal survey of the Pentagon press corps ranked Rumsfeld as the worst defense secretary. Former Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, who held the cabinet post in the Nixon administration, was rated the best. Along
with Rumsfeld, Robert McNamara, Clark Clifford and Elliot Richardson received low ratings. Rumsfeld responds that the rating may have been because his tenure was short and he has never been a favorite of the news media.
After leaving the government payroll for the first time in 14 years, Rumsfeld discussed with friends the possibility of moving to a Western state and running for the U.S. Senate but decided against it. For a brief time, he lectured at Princeton`s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and at Northwestern`s Graduate School of Management, but Rumsfeld was too restless to make teaching his second career.
Rumsfeld, who had also been interested in returning to Illinois, jumped at the opportunity to take over as chairman and president of G.D. Searle. Daniel C. Searle, who recruited Rumsfeld, had been a North Shore neighbor and had served as finance chairman of Rumsfeld`s first congressional campaign. Rumsfeld was hired because of his reputation as a tough take-charge administrator. ”I was not asked to be either innovative or not innovative,” he says. ”I was asked to get results. The troubled company that Rumsfeld had taken over in 1977 was sold last year to the Monsanto Corp. for $2.7 billion, and soon afterward he left the Skokie-based firm to become a consultant to an investment banking firm and to increase his political activity.
Rumsfeld and his wife are selling their home in Winnekta and have moved to an apartment on the Near North Side. He used to have a chauffeur-driven limousine on call but now takes a CTA bus to his LaSalle Street office, where he has a 39th-floor view of Lake Michigan and is surrounded by mementos of his political career.
For relaxation and exercise, Rumsfeld plays tennis, skis, occasionally jogs and rides horseback on family vacations in New Mexico. He is a voracious reader, mostly in the fields of history and political biography.
While at Searle Rumsfeld maintained many of his old political contacts, and in 1980 sought the Republican vice presidential nomination. Reagan liked and respected Rumsfeld, and former Rumsfeld aide Brady was actively promoting his ex-boss within the Reagan camp. Since it would be Reagan`s private choice, Rumsfeld could do little to influence the decision.
Even so, Rumsfeld could not hide his own ambition when former President Ford was being courted by Reagan as his vice presidential candidate, making it known that he believed a Reagan-Ford ticket wouldn`t work. Rumsfeld proved to be right. When Ford began discussing his plans for a co-presidency on national television, he was promptly dropped from consideration, and Bush was selected. In 1980 Rumsfeld campaigned for Reagan and served as one of his advisers on foreign policy and defense issues. Following the election, he also served on Reagan`s transition team.
In 1983 Reagan appointed Rumsfeld his special envoy to the Middle East, where his diplomatic efforts failed to produce a peaceful solution to the civil war in Lebanon. Rumsfeld did, however, manage to help reopen U.S. relations with Iraq. He quit the post in 1984, and friends have suggested that the only appointive job Rumsfeld thinks is worth having is that of secretary of state, now held by his friend George Shultz.
Looking ahead, Rumsfeld isn`t thinking about getting another presidential appointment. ”I like to be my own man,” he has said.
After working for the last three Republican presidents, Rumsfeld thinks that he understands the job better than anyone in the crowded field of 1988 candidates and that the American public just might be ready to turn to a successful corporate executive with high-level political experience and conservative credentials. And if Rumsfeld decides that he can be competitive in the primaries and caucuses, he won`t be shooting for second place. ”I never want it written on my tombstone,” Rumsfeld has said, ”that `He was a good loser.` ”
