Known and Unknown (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• George W. Bush: For the most part, President Bush does not come through as a main character. His thoughts, ideas and actions do through Mr. Rumsfeld.
• Saddam Hussein: Add a description of this character.
• Richard Nixon
• Colin Powell
• Ronald Reagan
• Dick Cheney
• Henry Kissinger
• Joyce
• Myers
• Clinton
• Johnson
• Searle
• Kennedy
• Bremer
• Rice
• Carter
• George Shultz
• Rumsfeld
• Karzai
• Don
• Schlesinger
• Goldwater
• Haig
• Nick
• Dole
• Casey
• Sanchez
• Gerald Ford
• Abizaid
• George H. W. Bush
• Gemayel
• Shinseki
• Qahtani
• Franks
• Halleck
• Garner
• Agnew
• Wolfowitz
• Sadr
• Ehrlichman

Quotes edit see section history

• “For many young boys in the quiet villages on the outskirst of Chicago, where the biggest neighborhood news was the search for a missing dog, the American West offered mystery and excitement. My friends and I sent in for the Lone Ranger's six-shooter ring and deputy badge. And we learned the Lone Ranger credo: 'I believe that to have a friend, a man must be one. That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world. That God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself.' Seven decades later, it is still not a bad philosophy (pg. 37).”

  Donald Rumsfeld

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• “If a problem has no solution, it is not a problem to be solved but a fact to be coped with over time.”

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• “What you measure improves.” A corollary rule in the military is that “You get what you inspect, not what you expect.”

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• “There is a tendency in our planning to confuse the unfamiliar with the improbable.”

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• “in unanimity there may well be either cowardice or uncritical thinking.”

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• Dwight D. Eisenhower’s insightful observation that “plans are worthless, but planning is everything,”

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• The third step is evaluating the possible courses of action in light of the assumptions.

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• Socrates: “I neither know nor think that I know.”3 This has been interpreted to mean that the beginning of wisdom is the realization of how little one truly knows.

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• The second step of strategy is identifying the major assumptions associated with the challenge at hand, always recognizing that they are based on imperfect information that can change or even turn out to have been incorrect.

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• It should have been clear: The way to successfully deal with terrorists is not only to try to defend against them, but also to take the battle to them; to go after them where they live, where they plan, where they hide; to go after their finances and their networks; and even to go after nations that harbor and assist them. The best defense would be a good offense. Beirut demonstrated to me the profound truth that weakness is provocative.

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• Admiral Jim Ellis told me what his Naval Academy physics professor had taught him: “If you want traction, you must first have friction.”

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Washington D.C.
• Lebanon
• Iraq
• United States
• Afghanistan
• America
• White House
• Baghdad
• Vietnam
• Iran
• Middle East
• Syria
• Soviet Union
• China
• Russia
• Chicago
• Pakistan
• Germany
• Beirut
• Illinois
• Europe
• France
• Israel
• North Korea
• Kabul
• California
• Princeton
• Japan
• Brussels
• Guantanamo Bay
• Haldeman
• Texas
• Turkey
• Oval Office
• Saudi Arabia
• Uzbekistan
• Taliban
• Kuwait
• Belgium
• New York
• Gitmo
• Capitol Hill
• India
• Tora Bora
• Ohio
• Egypt
• Colombia

Organizations edit see section history

• OEO (Office of Economic Opportunity): "One of the chief targets of the Nixon speech was the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), which had started under John F. Kennedy as a small set of experimental programs run out of the Executive Office of the President. The agency had been lassoed by his successor, LBJ, as part of what he grandly called his War on Poverty. Under Johnson, who thought on a mammoth scale, OEO ballooned." pg. 119

First Sentence edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Personal Insights: Describe this theme.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Donald Rumsfeld (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: E840.8.R84 A3 2011
• Dewey: 352.293

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Biographies & Memoirs › Leaders & Notable People › Political
• Books › Biographies & Memoirs › Memoirs