Editing Donald Rumsfeld (section)

===Part-time public service===
[[File:Ronald Reagan at a National Security Briefing with Donald Rumsfeld and George Shultz in Oval Office.jpg|thumb|Rumsfeld with [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[George Shultz]] in the [[Oval Office]], [[White House]] on November 3, 1983]]
During his business career, Rumsfeld continued part-time public service in various posts. In November 1983, Rumsfeld was appointed special envoy to the Middle East by President Ronald Reagan,<ref>{{cite news |title=MAJOR NEWS IN SUMMARY; TURKISH CYPRIOTS MAKE THE BREAK |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/20/weekinreview/major-news-in-summary-turkish-cypriots-make-the-break.html |access-date=4 July 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=20 November 1983 |quote=President Reagan sent his new Middle East envoy, Donald Rumsfeld, to confer with the Turks and prepared to receive President Spyros Kyprianou of Cyprus tomorrow. |archive-date=May 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524142235/http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/20/weekinreview/major-news-in-summary-turkish-cypriots-make-the-break.html |url-status=live }}</ref> at a turbulent time in modern Middle Eastern history when Iraq was fighting Iran in the [[Iran–Iraq War]]. The United States wished for Iraq to win the conflict, and Rumsfeld was sent to the Middle East to serve as a mediator on behalf of the president.

[[File:Shakinghands high.ogv|thumb|thumbtime=00:03|right|As President Reagan's Special Envoy to the Middle East, Rumsfeld met with [[Saddam Hussein]] during a visit to [[Baghdad]] in December 1983, during the [[Iran–Iraq War]].]]

When Rumsfeld visited [[Baghdad]] on December 20, 1983, he met Saddam Hussein at Saddam's palace and engaged a 90-minute discussion with him. They largely agreed on opposing [[Syria]]'s occupation of [[Lebanon]]; preventing Syrian and Iranian expansion; and preventing arms sales to Iran. Rumsfeld suggested that if U.S.-Iraq relations could improve the U.S. might support a new [[oil pipeline]] across [[Jordan]], which Iraq had opposed but was now willing to reconsider. Rumsfeld also informed Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister [[Tariq Aziz]] that "Our efforts to assist were inhibited by certain things that made it difficult for us ... citing the use of [[chemical weapons]]."<ref name="own rules" />{{rp|159–60}}

Rumsfeld wrote in his memoir ''Known and Unknown'' that his meeting with Hussein "has been the subject of gossip, rumors, and crackpot conspiracy theories for more than a quarter of a century ... Supposedly I had been sent to see Saddam by President Reagan either to negotiate a secret oil deal, to help arm Iraq, or to make Iraq an American [[client state]]. The truth is that our encounter was more straightforward and less dramatic."<ref name="memoir" />{{rp|6}} ''[[The Washington Post]]'' reported that "Although former U.S. officials agree that Rumsfeld was not one of the architects of the Reagan administration's [[United States support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War|tilt toward Iraq]]—he was a private citizen when he was appointed Middle East envoy—the documents show that his visits to Baghdad led to closer U.S.–Iraqi cooperation on a wide variety of fronts."<ref>{{cite news|last=Dobbs|first=Michael|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/12/30/us-had-key-role-in-iraq-buildup/133cec74-3816-4652-9bd8-7d118699d6f8/|title=U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=2002-12-30|accessdate=2022-05-26}}</ref>

In addition to taking the position of Middle East envoy, Rumsfeld served as a member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control (1982–1986); President Reagan's special envoy on the [[Law of the Sea Treaty]] (1982–1983); a senior adviser to President Reagan's Panel on Strategic Systems (1983–1984); a member of the Joint Advisory Commission on U.S./Japan Relations (1983–1984); a member of the National Commission on the Public Service (1987–1990); a member of the [[National Economic Commission]] (1988–1989); a member of the board of visitors of the [[National Defense University (Washington, D.C.)|National Defense University]] (1988–1992); a member of the [[Federal Communications Commission|FCC]]'s High Definition Television Advisory Committee (1992–1993); a member of the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission (1999–2000); a member of the [[Council on Foreign Relations]]; and chairman of the U.S. Commission to Assess National Security Space Management and Organization (2000). Among his most noteworthy positions was chairman of the nine-member [[Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States]] from January to July 1998. In its findings, the commission concluded that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea could develop intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities in five to ten years and that U.S. intelligence would have little warning before such systems were deployed.<ref>{{cite web |first=Donald |last=Rumsfeld |display-authors=etal |url=https://fas.org/irp/threat/missile/rumsfeld/ |title=Report of the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States |date=July 15, 1998 |publisher=[[Federation of American Scientists]] |access-date=May 29, 2019 |archive-date=May 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522090854/https://fas.org/irp/threat/missile/rumsfeld/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the 1980s, Rumsfeld became a member of the [[National Academy of Public Administration (United States)|National Academy of Public Administration]], and was named a member of the boards of trustees of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, the [[Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships]], the [[Hoover Institution]] at [[Stanford University]], and the [[National Park Foundation]]. He was also a member of the U.S./Russia Business Forum and chairman of the Congressional Leadership's National Security Advisory Group.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bush Selects Rumsfeld for Another Term as Secretary of Defense – Both Men Stress Importance of Missile Defense System|url=http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/release/3/4000/rumsfeld-picked-as-us-defense-secretary-(dec.-29).html|access-date=2020-07-30|website=www.defense-aerospace.com|archive-date=January 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125222835/http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/release/3/4000/rumsfeld-picked-as-us-defense-secretary-(dec.-29).html|url-status=live}}</ref> Rumsfeld was a member of the [[Project for the New American Century]], a think-tank dedicated to maintaining U.S. primacy. In addition, he was asked to serve the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] as a foreign policy consultant from 1990 to 1993. Though considered one of the Bush administration's staunchest hard-liners against North Korea, Rumsfeld sat on European engineering giant [[Asea Brown Boveri]]'s board from 1990 to 2001, a company that sold two light-water nuclear reactors to the [[Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization]] for installation in [[North Korea]], as part of the [[Agreed Framework between the United States of America and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea|1994 agreed framework]] reached under President [[Bill Clinton]]. Rumsfeld's office said that he did not "recall it being brought before the board at any time" though ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'' magazine reported that "board members were informed about this project".<ref>{{cite news|title=Rummy's North Korea Connection; What did Donald Rumsfeld know about ABB's deal to build nuclear reactors there? And why won't he talk about it?|work=Fortune|date=May 12, 2003|page=75}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Rumsfeld Was on ABB Board |url=https://archive.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/nkorea/2003/0224nuclear.htm |access-date=2022-11-02 |website=archive.globalpolicy.org}}</ref> The Bush administration repeatedly criticized the 1994 agreement and the former Clinton presidency for its softness towards North Korea, regarding the country as a [[State Sponsors of Terrorism (U.S. list)|state sponsor of terrorism]], and later designated North Korea as part of the [[Axis of evil|Axis-of-Evil]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2006-10-11 |title=How Rumsfeld Built Pyongyang Its Nukes |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/how-rumsfeld-built-pyongyang-its-nukes-247410/ |access-date=2022-11-02 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref>