US President-Elect Names Rumsfeld as Defense SecretaryUS President-elect George W. Bush Thursday nominated Donald Rumsfeld, who served as defense secretary under President Gerald Ford, as his defense secretary.Bush, who will be sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States on January 20, called Rumsfeld's service to the country " extraordinary." Speaking to reporters in Washington, Bush said he hopes to have the cabinet completed by the end of the first week in January. Rumsfeld, 68, has held more than a half-dozen jobs in Republican administrations, including head of former President Nixon's Office of Economic Opportunity and wage-price control program and as Nixon's ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as former President Ford's chief of staff and secretary of defense, and as former President Reagan's Middle East envoy. He served on a National Economic Commission that studied deficit reduction under former President Bush. |
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