Madam, - In the spring of 1962, the Republican Party primary for the US Congress in Chicago's affluent north shore suburbs was wide open because of a retiring incumbent. Backers of a young underdog candidate named Don Rumsfeld approached my father, who was a staunch Republican.
The district's Republican leaders had settled on another older party loyalist. But this man was becoming mired in a scandal, and interest was building to find an alternative. The clincher for my father was when Rumsfeld's backers pointed out that, like my father and my older brother, Rumsfeld was a graduate of Princeton University. My father just couldn't let down a fellow Princeton man.
So, my parents decided to give a party in our spacious family home in southeast Evanston. It was held on a beautiful spring day, drew a large crowd, and Rumsfeld's campaign for Congress was well under way. Rumsfeld easily won his primary contest and was elected to Congress in November 1962.
He was then re-elected to three additional terms with equal ease. In a district where the Democratic Party was steadily gaining in strength and which later would send a Democrat to Congress, Rumsfeld was unbeatable. Everyone liked his unfailingly polite manners, his affable personality and moderate views, and his attention to the district's constituents and needs.
As I read and hear the news about him in today's media, I just can't help but wonder whatever has happened to Don Rumsfeld. Has power gone so blatantly to his head, or is the press treating him very unfairly?
How could he have turned from such a likable and good Congressman into a loutish bully who has antagonised much of the world and who quotes Al Capone for inspiration?
At any rate, as I sadly reflect on the current stories about him, I long for the Rumsfeld of old who so ably and decently served us as our Congressman. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID SCHULZ, Deerfield, Illinois, USA.