Think
Progress
Saturday, December 9, 2006
At a Pentagon townhall meeting today, outgoing Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld said he began reading books about the
U.S. Civil War, but “turned away from that” because
he “there were so many people killed and wounded, and they
were all Americans.” Rumsfeld said he began reading books
about World War II instead.
Rumsfeld appears to be in denial about civil wars, refusing to
read books on the U.S.’s history and failing to recognize
there is one going on currently
in Iraq.
Full transcript:
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I’m wondering what books you read
while you were secretary that you found most useful and edifying.
RUMSFELD: Well, I’ve read a great many books. They’re
all history books; a number about the Revolutionary War and about
George Washington and John Adams and others, Jefferson.
I started reading a number of books about the Civil War. And
one particularly good one was a book on Ulysses S. Grant. But
I stopped. I found the struggle going on — gosh, those years,
there were so many people killed and wounded, and they were all
Americans, except for the foreign fighters who came over from
Germany and Poland and elsewhere.
So I turned away from that and read a great deal about World
War II. And that has been basically what I’ve been reading.
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