His 2013 book Rumsfeld's Rules is full of sound, hard-headed advice about running large organizations, whether they be the Defense Department or a large corporation. For all the bad press he got, largely from liberals who were against the Iraq war, he does in fact have quite a good sense of dry humor and a commendable level of humility, especially for a high-level Washington type. And as far as I can see his advice in this book is spot on. He emphasizes over and over that events are unpredictable, the source of his very perceptive statement about "unknown unknowns" that was so widely ridiculed by the press, who clearly weren't smart enough to understand it. Of course when Nassim Talib reframed the same statement in terms of "Black Swans" the same press thought it was brilliant.
And by the way, I have always admired his behavior on 9/11. When the plane hit the Pentagon his staff wanted to rush him off to a safe place, but he insisted on going out and helping with the rescue efforts. That, I thought, told a lot about who he really was.
I highly recommend this book.
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