Library https://papers.rumsfeld.com/rss/library.asp en-us (c) 2011 Sun, 05 Apr 2026 16:15:05 EST http://feedvalidator.org/docs/rss2.html www.eResources.com (Generator) spbook@eresources.com (SPBOOK) support@eresources.com (eResources) 60 <![CDATA[Newly-Declassified Document Released]]> This September, 2002 Joint Chiefs briefing on the state of Iraq’s WMD programs opens with the admission that “Our assessments rely heavily on analytic assumptions and judgment rather than hard evidence…we don’t know with any precision how much we don’t know."

The document was declassified in partially-redacted form on January 6, 2011.  Click here to view or download it.

]]> Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Hightlight Document: Nixon Administration]]> This record of a November 8, 1972 cabinet meeting documents President Nixon's mood the day after his landmark re-election.  Download it here.

]]> Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> This October 15, 2002 snowflake, the so-called "Parade of Horribles," speculates on the many things that could go wrong if the President authorized military action in Iraq.  Download it here.

]]> Mon, 23 May 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Ford Administration]]> This memo to President Ford details the problems we had identified in the administration. As it turns out we gave it to him on the evening before he made the staff changes known as "The Halloween Massacre."  Download it here.

]]> Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> This June 25, 2001 snowflake, known as "The Anchor Chain," details the organizational challenges the Pentagon faced at the dawn of the 21st century.  Download it here.

]]> Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Congress]]> This example of my Congressional voting record details the 111 amendments proposed to the 1964 Civil Rights legislation.  Download it here.

]]> Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Middle East Envoy]]> This November, 1983 cable to George Shultz records my impressions of the middle east after my first trip there as President Reagan's special envoy--including a surprising meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.  Download it here.

]]> Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> This September 30, 2001 memo contains the early thoughts on the war on terror I sent to the President shortly after the 9/11 attacks.  Download it here.

]]> Sat, 16 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Ford Administration]]> This September 28, 1974 gives a sense of the atmosphere in the White House on my first day as President Ford's Chief of Staff.  Download it here.

]]> Sun, 13 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> This October 6, 2001 trip report to President Bush includes notes on my meeting with an "ebullient" President Mubarak.  Download it here.

]]> Sun, 13 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Congress]]> This sample of my Congressional voting record details the attempt to raise the permanent debt limitation from $285 billion to $365 billion in 1967.  I was proud to vote against it, and to see it defeated.   Download my thoughts and the Republican views here.

]]> Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Documents Released: Bush Administration]]> 300 additional snowflakes from 2006 have been released in the Library, including "Managing Training Afghan Security Forces," "NSC Meeting on GWOT," and "Missile Defense Issue."

]]> Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Documents Released: Middle East Envoy]]> Four cables have been released in the Library: "Meeting with President Mubarak, November 16, 1983;" "Meeting with President Mubarak, December 18, 1983;" "Meeting with Mubarak - Gulf War, Lebanon, Syria, Terrorism;" and "Meeting with Mubarak - Egyptian Reactions to AWACS Deployment." 

]]> Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Congress]]> This example of my Congressional voting record documents the growing confusion over how the Johnson administration was funding the Vietnam war. Download it here.

]]> Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> This 2003 snowflake reveals the Bush administration's challenges in staffing our embassy in Kabul.  Download it here.

]]> Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> This 2005 snowflake records my ongoing thoughts about how we needed to reorient ourselves to effectively meet the complex and difficult challenges of the first war of the 21st century.  Download it here.

]]> Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Early Years]]> Adlai Stevenson's 1954 speech to my graduating Princeton class inspired me to pursue public service, and it remains as eloquent today as it was 57 years ago.  Download it here.

]]> Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Documents Released: Ford Administration]]> As Chief of Staff to President Ford, I used rapidly-produced transcriptions of my meeting notes to implement the President's directions.  These rough and unedited documents were passed first to my deputy, Dick Cheney, to staff out to other members of the administration.  Cheney's handwritten notes can be found in the margins, and eventually he started contributing memos on his own.  Topics covered in this newly-released batch include my first day on the job, managing the White House, the fall of Vietnam, Vice President Rockefeller's energy plan, and the fall out from the so-called "Halloween Massacre."

Browse all the released memos of meetings with President Ford here. 

]]> Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> This January, 2002 snowflake records the important Presidential decisions I had observed in the four months after 9/11.  Download it here.

]]> Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Nixon Administration]]> This July, 1974 conversation with then Chief of Staff Al Haig gives a sense of the atmosphere in the White House in the weeks before President Nixon's resignation.  Download it here.

]]> Sat, 16 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> This October, 2003 snowflake records some concerns about the ongoing training of the new Iraqi police force.  Download it here.

]]> Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Middle East Envoy]]> This December 21, 1983 cable records my long and unexpected one-on-one meeting with Tariq Aziz.  Download it here (large file).

]]> Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> This July 27, 2001 snowflake to National Security Advisor Condleezza Rice details my ongoing concerns about Saddam Hussein's activities, and our need to fashion a coherant Iraq policy.  Download it here.

]]> Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Documents Released: Bush Administration]]> These memos from 2001-03 are more formal than the so-called "snowflakes."  They are frequently authored by others, sometimes in response to snowflakes, and deal with the wide-range of issues we confronted on a daily basis at the Department of Defense.  Topics include my early thoughts on the Department, missile defense, transformation, the international criminal court, the budget, military commissions, detainees, Afghanistan and Iraq.  Browse them chronologically here.

]]> Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Congress]]> This example of my Congressional voting record documents my thoughts on the so-called "Gulf of Tonkin" resolution, which gave President Lyndon Johnson the authority to "take all necessary steps" in the conduct of the Vietnam war. Download it here.

]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Documents: Bush Administration]]> Towards the end of our July, 2006 interview, Bob Woodward asked me if I would write him a souvenir memo so he could "be the first [journalist] to get a snowflake." Unknown to Woodward, I had written several snowflakes about his activities during my years in the Bush administration—but I doubt they are what he had in mind. Read examples here, here, here, here and here. In addition, readers may be interested in Judge Laurence Silberman’s 2005 letter on Woodward’s interpretation of the Silberman-Robb report on pre-war Iraq intelligence, as well as the DoD transcripts of my two interviews with Woodward (2003 and 2006), which differ at times from his accounts of our discussions in his books.

]]> Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Documents: Bush Administration]]> This handwritten note documents my one-on-one meeting with President Bush in which he first asked me to review the war plan for Iraq.  Bob Woodward contends this meeting never happened.  This document suggests otherwise.  Download it here (a transcript of my handwriting is available here).  My official calendar for the day that records the White House meeting is here.

]]> Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Video Released: Middle East Envoy]]> In December 1983, I traveled to Baghdad as President Reagan’s Middle East Envoy and met with Saddam Hussein. At the conclusion of our meeting he presented me with a gift. Such gifts can be unusual, but even so I was shocked by this one. Saddam had given me a three-minute videotape documenting alleged Syrian “atrocities.” The blurred, choppy footage shows young Syrians biting the heads off of snakes and stabbing puppies, to the apparent applause of then-Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad. Saddam’s message was clear: The Syrian regime was barbaric. Though his evidence was hardly convincing, his conclusion was a tough one to dispute.

WARNING: This video depicts graphic violence. Some viewers may find it disturbing.

View it here.

]]> Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Documents Released: Middle East Envoy]]> These cables, many recently declassified, communicated the substance of my meetings to the Department of State when I was serving as President Reagan's Special Envoy to the Middle East.  They are mostly focused on my main task, which was to try to find some sort of resolution to the ongoing problems in Lebanon that continue to trouble the region to this day.

Browse the cables here.

]]> Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> I developed these guidelines in March, 2001 in case President Bush would need to consider using military force in the years ahead.

Download it here.

]]> Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Documents Released: Bush Administration]]> This collection of 100 snowflakes from 2001-02 record the many Defense-related issues the Bush administration confronted before and after 9/11. Topics include transformation, missile defense and response to the terrorist attacks, as well as budget issues. Browse them here.

]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Reagan Administration]]> This October 23, 1992 memo records my meeting with President Reagan shortly before I departed on my first trip as his Special Emissary to the Law of the Sea treaty. The President displayed his trademark ability to drill down to the heart of the matter without getting distracted by details. Download it here.

]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Documents Released: Bush Administration]]> This selection of more than 200 memos from the second half of 2003 documents the many issues the Bush administration confronted during the early occupation of Iraq.  Topics include (among others) the CPA, as well as personnel, space, the budget, transformation, Congressional relations and Afghanistan.  Browse them here.

]]> Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration Snowflake]]> This April, 2003 snowflake to Undersecretary for Policy Doug Feith documents the early confusion over who would oversee post-combat operations in Iraq.  Download it here.

]]> Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration Memo]]> This September 22, 2001 memo to President Bush reflects a conversation I had had with Benjamin Netanyahu in the days after 9/11.  Download it here.

]]> Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> This October, 2002 exchange with Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes documents some of the legal issues surrounding different types of military action.  Download it here.

]]> Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Reagan Administration]]> This terse cable to George Shultz and Larry Eagleberger reveals my frustration after months of dealing with the Assad regime in 1983-84.  Download it here.

]]> Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration Snowflake]]> This November, 2003 snowflake records my thoughts after a conversation with Senator McCain on troop levels in Iraq.  Download it here.

]]> Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Documents Released: Congress]]> These additional examples of my Congressional voting record from 1967-68 document the many contentious legislative issues we dealt with during those turbulent years ranging from Vietnam, civil rights, political assassinations and the space race to our ever-increasing national debt.

Browse them here.

]]> Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration Memo]]> This January, 2003 memo from Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith documents the efforts DoD was making to establish a postwar planning office for Iraq that would draw on a number of relevant government agencies, including Agriculture, Justice, and Education as well as DoD, State and CIA.  Download it here.

]]> Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Documents: Bush Administration]]>

Almost a decade after the Bush administration established military commissions for detainees and a facility at Guantanamo to keep terrorists from returning to the battlefield, the Obama administration announced on April 4, 2011 that they would keep these policies in place – contrary to several years’ worth of their inflated rhetoric on the subject.  Contemporary documents from 2001-03 reveal the complex legal issues officials grappled with as they reached these decisions, which ranged from where to house the detainees to what their legal status was and what crimes could be tried by the Commissions to how to involve Congress in detainee issues. 

Browse a selection of these documents here.

]]> Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Documents: Bush Administration]]> This July, 2004 exchange with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers documents the review of troop levels in Iraq provoked by CPA administrator Jerry Bremer's memo on the topic as he departed the country. Download them here.

]]> Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Documents: Bush Administration]]> Documents related to the establishment and ongoing maintenance of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba can be found here, here, here, here and here. Additional documents can be found by searching "Guantanamo" or "GTMO" in the main Library.

]]> Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Bush Administration]]> This 2005 memo from General Wayne Downing (ret.) assesses the state of our special operations forces four years after 9/11. While parts of it are still classified for good reason, the document gives a sense of how far we had gotten and the path ahead in developing this important capability that, most recently, resulted in the death of Usama bin Laden. Download it here.

]]> Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Documents: Bush Administration]]> These newly-released documents on the Defense Department’s detention operations detail the many issues the Bush administration confronted in fashioning a new policy in the global war on terror to detain those who did not wear uniforms or carry arms openly.   While nobody wanted to become “the world’s jailor,” the reality was that some had to be kept from returning to the fight, and DoD did a superb job of it.  Subjects covered in these documents include  determining the legal status of different nationals and the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib abuses.  Browse them here.  Additional previously-released documents on detention issues can be found here.

]]> Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Documents: Bush Administration]]> This newly-released batch of memos from 2004-06 documents the range of issues the Department of Defense confronted moving into President Bush's second term, from the ongoing efforts at transformation and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to new challenges such as Hurricane Katrina.  Browse them here.

]]> Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Highlight Document: Congress]]> These notes were dictated an hour after an extensive briefing on Vietnam for members of Congress by President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The session indicated to some of us that by early 1966, the President's Vietnam policy was foundering. Download it here.

]]> Mon, 23 May 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Document Released: Congress]]> This June 9, 1967 statement lays out my strong concerns about Israel's security in the midst of the Six Day War, concerns I still have to this day.  Download it here.

]]> Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[Historical Timeline]]> The 1932-2011 historical timeline has been expanded with additional photographs and information.  Browse it here.

]]> Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New NATO Documents Released]]> 200 additional documents from the NATO period (1973-74) are now available in the Library.  Topics covered include the working of the US Mission in Brussels, the Cyprus crisis, and the aftermath of Watergate.  Browse them here.

]]> Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[The Peril of Deep Defense Cuts]]> An op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal: "Our country has taken an axe to the national security budget after every war of the 20th century. And every time we later regretted it." Read it here.

]]> Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[First Lady Betty Ford (1918-2011)]]> Joyce and I were deeply saddened to learn of Betty Ford's passing.  Our thoughts  are with Michael, Jack, Steve, Susan, and all of the Ford family.  As friends we share their loss.  My full statement can be read here.

]]> Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Documents Released]]> This previously unreleased collection of 522 "snowflakes" from 2005-06 provides new insight into the events of that period.   They include a January, 2005 communication to Stephen Hadley about possible reforms of the NSC process, a July, 2005 note on the cycles of feast and famine in intelligence and defense budgeting, and a January, 2006 chart from General Stanley McChrystal recommending a new approach in Iraq.   Browse them all here. 

]]> Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[New Ford Administration DoD Documents Released]]> This set of 359 documents from my time as Secretary of Defense during the Ford administration (1975-77) documents many of the key issues of the time, including ongoing SALT negotiations, the NSC, the development of the B-1 bomber and the HM-1 tank, and observations on the activities of foreign nations--notably Libya's growing support for terrorism. Browse all the documents here.

]]> Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA["In My Time" by Dick Cheney with Liz Cheney Released Today]]>

I have sometimes reflected that Dick Cheney has been one of the finest members of Congress, White House Chiefs of Staff, Secretaries of Defense and private sector CEOs in our nation’s history—not to mention the single finest vice president—a remarkable record that has given him a unique perspective on both government and business.  While his habit of speaking his mind in a forthright, unvarnished manner can be disconcerting for some, it should make for an excellent book.  Anyone interested in an account of the events of the last four decades from the perspective of someone who was there should consider In My Time a must read.

Buy the book here.

]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[The Cheney Files]]> This small sample of the documents related to Dick Cheney in the Library was selected to give a sense of the many issues, great and small, that he and I have grappled with over our decades of public service.  Several of them are referenced in In My Time.  Review them here.

]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[The Agony of Surprise]]> "The Agony of Surprise" recounts the events of September 11, 2001.  Download the .pdf here.

]]> Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:00:00 EST <![CDATA[9/11 Documents]]> This selection of documents from the days after September 11, 2001 gives a sense of how the Department of Defense along with the rest of the Bush administration responded to the attacks.  Review them here.

]]> Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:00:00 EST