Known and Unknown: A Memoir "learned nothing and forgotten nothing". Known and Unknown: A Memoir Known and Unknown: A Memoir is an autobiographical book by Donald Rumsfeld, an American politician and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 and again from 2001 to 2006 (among many other positions). He published it through Penguin Group USA in February 2011. It covers a variety of his experiences such as working as a Republican in the U.S. House in the late-1960s, serving in the Ford Administration during the Watergate and Vietnam crises, and serving during the George W. Bush Administration through the Abu Ghraib
Known and Unknown: A Memoir himself as skeptical of the experiences of "those who enjoy the inherited benefit of prominent names." However, he ends up forging a close relationship with George W. Bush. Rumsfeld labels the younger Bush "decidedly down-to-earth, with no inclination to formality" with a "demeanor... different from his father's somewhat patrician manner." He details his efforts to move the Defense Department away from its traditional emphasis on expensive, long-standing weapons systems towards a system based on lighter, mobile, and autonomous forces. He recounts his turf disputes that came up while enacting reforms. The dramatics over canceling the $11 billion Crusader artillery platform