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In a statement released Wednesday, family members said Rumsfeld had gone extinct “surrounded by families in his beloved Tause, New Mexico.”
A family spokesman, Keith Urbahn, said the former Pentagon leader had generalized myeloma.
“History may remember him for his extraordinary accomplishments in six decades in the civil service, but those who knew him best and whose lives have been forever changed will remember his unwavering love for his wife Joyce, his family and friends, and the honesty that a life consecrated to the country, ”the family said in a statement.
Considered cautious and combative by his former colleagues, patriot and prone to political tricks, Rumsfeld has built an impressive career in government under four presidents and has also worked in the big business world for more than 20 years.
He retired in 2008 and led the Rumsfeld Foundation to improve civil service and work with charities that provide services and support to families of wounded military and veterans.
Former US President George W. Bush has mourned Rumsfeld and called him a “very good man.”
“A man of intelligence, honesty and almost inexhaustible energy. He has never been tough with difficult decisions and has never shied away from responsibility,” Bush said in a report, though he did not mention Rumsfeld’s controversial decision to attack Iraq.
“We are failing an exemplary official and a very good man,” added the former president.
Rumsfeld served as head of the Department of Defense in the administrations of Republican Presidents Gerald Ford and GW Bush from 1975 to 1977 and from 2001 to 2006.
One of his most important roles was organizing the Pentagon’s response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Subsequently, Rumsfeld led the US military offensive in Afghanistan, which toppled the Taliban regime and protected Osama bin Laden and other leaders of the Al Qaeda terrorist network.
Two years later, Rumsfeld oversaw the US invasion of Iraq to overthrow then-dictator Saddam Hussein.
The Pentagon leader immediately warned that Iraq was amassing a growing arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, even though such weapons had never been found in the country.
In 2004, Rumsfeld twice asked Bush to allow him to resign after information about the brutal treatment of American prisoners held at the infamous Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison became public. He later referred to this episode as the darkest moment of his job as Secretary of Defense.
Yet it was only after the midterm elections in November 2006, when Democrats won a majority in Congress, that the president allowed Rumsfeld to stir up waves of American anti-war sentiment. He resigned in December of that year and was replaced by Robert Gates.
When Rumsfeld died, he left his wife, three children and seven grandchildren.
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