On June 30, 2021, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld passed away. It is true that as one of the main promoters of the War in Afghanistan and Iraq, his hands are indeed stained with the blood of Americans and Arabs, but if we look at this person from another angle, he will find that he is a great man in the history of the US military, and since Rumsfeld, it is difficult for any defense minister to achieve his achievements.
Figure 1 Rumsfeld
There are many great generals in the history of the United States, MacArthur, Marshall, Eisenhower, they either led the US military to win a key war, or led the US military to a key revolution, and Rumsfeld is the key gentleman who led the United States to informationization, and since the US military, the armed forces of all countries in the world have also followed suit into the information age, and it is not an exaggeration to say that Rumsfeld is the originator of information warfare.
Although many people now have the impression that the US military is very strong, in fact, before 1991, all countries in the world maintained a great skeptical attitude towards its combat effectiveness, just look at the record, in World War II, the same formation of US troops were often beaten by the German army, the Japanese army was often beaten by the German army, the Japanese army was beaten miserably, and finally won purely because the United States weapons production and the number of soldiers had an overwhelming advantage, and when the US army entered the war, Japan and Germany had been consumed by other allies almost, Eisenhower, Barton, Bradley these generals were basically schoolchildren compared with the German counterparts of Rommel and Manstein, and did not fight several wonderful battles. After the end of World War II, the US military disbanded a large number of elite troops, entered the state of knives and guns into storage, and put horses south, the result was that in the 1950s, it was violently beaten by the newborn Sino-DPRK coalition forces in Korea, losing a lot of face, and in the 60s and 70s, it was even more collapsed in Vietnam, and it was almost collapsed by a small country at the end of the world, and finally slipped away; in the 80s, although the US military also had some more wonderful small battles, the opponents were basically Gaddafi, Iran and the like, and could not enter the eyes of the world's military powers. Although european countries have the support of the United States, but the most felt fear of the impact from the Warsaw Pact tank cluster, the U.S. military defense of the European continent is almost a consensus in every NATO high-level, it can be said that at that time, the world's political leaders, people, no one thinks that the U.S. military is the most powerful and invincible force in the world, before the Gulf War, many military experts of our army predicted that the U.S. military will encounter strong resistance and suffer heavy casualties, it is based on this traditional impression of the combat effectiveness of the U.S. military. Now many netizens laughed at them for not being right, because military experts at that time had not yet seen any informationized warfare, and naturally could not assess the power of this new form of warfare.
Figure 2 The U.S. military has not been strong before the Gulf War
When the reputation and combat effectiveness of the US military fell to the bottom, a new generation of generals who sought the transformation and reform of the US military began to rise, the most representative of which was Rumsfeld, of course, some people did not agree with this view, thinking that it was John F. Kennedy. Boyd et al. really pioneered the U.S. military's theory of informationized warfare, but in reality, neither john nor John F. Boyd et al. Boyd was also the later John Warden, and they were indeed outstanding in the building of theory, but their political status was humble, and they could not promote the implementation of information transformation of the entire military through the power system of the US military.
The label on Rumsfeld's body is more obvious to determine his own characteristics, the first label is a Princeton University graduate, which determines that the person's scientific and cultural quality is not low, and the understanding and grasp of the concept of information technology can be very in place; the second label is the US Navy pilot, within the US military, the highest status of the Navy is the first class, the Navy pilot is the first class of people, Rumsfeld can be described as a root is Miao Hong, all the way up, in the military network is extremely wide, the impact is very large In 1975, U.S. President Ford appointed 43-year-old Rumsfeld as defense secretary, meaning he was old and not easily constrained by conventional thinking. The fourth label is Republican, the biggest difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is rough and tough, it is well known that the US foreign policy is a carrot and a stick, the Democratic Party is more carrots, and the Republican Party uses more sticks, this label determines Rumsfeld's hot and aggressive personality.
Figure 3 Rumsfeld's first defense minister was in a dire situation
Under these labels, we focus on his time as defense secretary in 1975 and we will find that this year happened to be the year after the end of the Vietnam War, the Vietnam War in the eyes of the Americans was the only time to admit a complete defeat, the veterans who participated in the Vietnam War were regarded as fascists and executioners by the American people, Rumsfeld took office, in the face of external military failure, the double pressure of the internal national trust crisis can be described as extremely difficult, although the young Rumsfeld resigned after only 2 years in office, but the combat effectiveness of the US military declined at that time. Morale decline, internal construction is a mess and other issues must have left a deep impression on him, reform the U.S. military has also become a lifelong ideal, after leaving office, Rumsfeld entered the private company, but still maintain a high degree of attention to the military affairs, especially his own relationship with the Bush family is very close, often use personal connections in and out of the White House, put forward their own major proposals, and it just so happens that in 1980, bush as vice president and Reagan partner won the election, although Rumsfeld did not take office in the Reagan administration, But it has always existed as a private think tank in the Reagan administration.
Many people believe that it was the Reagan administration that crushed the Soviet Union, although some of them are suspected of greed for their own merits, but the Reagan administration is indeed a good hand at engaging in anti-communist movements, and these anti-communist values and experiences are undoubtedly reproduced in Rumsfeld's mind, so the attitude towards the communist movement in the world has become extremely extreme, coupled with the encouragement of the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is even more convinced that its own values are correct, so it has become a well-known "hawk" in the United States. In the period of time when Vice President Bush was a think tank, Rumsfeld extensively used his personal connections in the political circles and military circles to radically promote the construction of military informatization, in his eyes, what the Defense Department reorganization bill, the separation of the administrative, command system and other US military reform measures are not fart, there is no information superiority everything is equal to 0, although this view is easier to understand today, but in the US military system at that time it is completely incomprehensible, because everyone believes that front-line combatants are the most important. Instead of some bullshit message hiding behind, Rumsfeld hit back with "a samurai with a knife, after giving him a rifle, brandishing the rifle as a knife, he was still a samurai, and only when he took the rifle and aimed at the target two hundred meters away, he turned into a warrior", pungently satirizing those front-line combatants who thought that the merits of the battle belonged to him, but also deeply resentful.
Figure 4 Rumsfeld promotes informatization
Under the impetus of Rumsfeld and others, the US military gradually began to transform information technology from the 80s, after the test of the Gulf War shocked the world, before this no one expected that the destruction of a country's regular armed forces would only cost more than 100 lives, this is undoubtedly a military revolution in the new era, the elder Bush has been full of praise for Rumsfeld since then, and intended to appoint him as defense secretary in his second term, but unexpectedly lost to Clinton.
After eight years of silence, in 2001, Bush Sr.'s son, George W. Bush, successfully ran for office, and Rumsfeld successfully became defense secretary again, at this time he became the oldest defense secretary in the history of the United States at that time, when the United States suffered 911, and the era of the war on terror officially began. Many people say that the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were done by Rumsfeld to promote George W. Bush, which is actually not accurate, because these two wars were almost completely passed by the US Congress, which is the will of the state, not a personal transfer, but under his leadership, the US military did not only achieve a brilliant victory in the early stage of the Iraq War, but also dragged into a difficult guerrilla war, and foreign media said that he "had the blood of 400,000 people on his hands" is a fact rather than an exaggeration.
It is worth mentioning that Rumsfeld promoted the deeper reform of the US military during his second term as secretary of defense, one is to promote the digital transformation of informatization, reduce the heavy equipment of the army, and try to form a modular force, this strategy has a far-reaching impact on today's US military, and the impact of the foundation work of digitalization on the future intelligent transformation may exceed expectations; the second is the reorganization of the Ministry of Defense, which will reduce a large number of internal organizations of the Ministry of Defense and strengthen the strength of civilian officers, but it is obvious that This reform disappeared as he withdrew from the stage of history.
In 2006, Rumsfeld stepped down amid a chorus of criticism and remained low-key until his death on June 30, 2021, the year Biden ended the war in Afghanistan.