Known and Unknown: A Memoir

Known and Unknown: A Memoir is an autobiographical book by Donald Rumsfeld published through Penguin Group USA in February 2011. It covers a variety of his experiences such as serving as a member of the United States House of Representatives in the late 60s, as a member of the Nixon and Ford administrations during the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, and as George W. Bush's Secretary of Defense at the onset of the War on Terror.

Known and Unknown: A Memoir
AuthorDonald Rumsfeld
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectMemoir, U.S. military history, U.S. politics
PublisherPenguin Group USA
Media typePrint
Pages726
ISBN978-1-59523-067-6

Rumsfeld makes a variety of statements about his positions meant to, in his view, correct the record. For example, he states that he always opposed using waterboarding during interrogations, and he argues that the Abu Ghraib detainee abuse scandal constituted one of his biggest personal regrets. He recounts having delivered his resignation but that the president didn't accept it, with Rumsfeld writing that his failure to demand being released from his job "was a misjudgment". In terms of commercial reception, the book was listed as number one on The New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover nonfiction, and number three for E-book nonfiction, on February 27, 2011.

The book received several notable critical reviews. These have ranged from general support from publications such as City Journal, where Victor Davis Hanson argued that "the onus shifts back onto Rumsfeld's critics to prove him wrong or disingenuous", to condemnation from publications such as The Huffington Post and The Financial Times, the latter in which ran comments by Andrew Bacevich panning the work as "tendentious rather than instructive". Rumsfeld is giving all of his profits from the book's sale to veterans' charities.

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