Bush Jr ‘made his own decisions’ says former defense secretary, who is labelled arrogant and damaging to president in new biography of George HW Bush

'He's getting up in years': Rumsfeld says Bush Sr wrong in criticism of son's aides

Donald Rumsfeld has dismissed George HW Bush’s criticism of him as “arrogant”, saying the former president “is getting up in years”.

'Iron-ass' Cheney and 'arrogant' Rumsfeld damaged America, says George Bush Sr Read more

Rumsfeld, who was secretary of defense for most of George Bush Jr’s two terms in the White House, was lambasted in a new biography of the senior Bush, who blamed his son’s aides for the hawkish stance the administration took in the Middle East after 9/11.

Bush Sr, who is 91, told his biographer, Jon Meacham, that Rumsfeld was “an arrogant fellow”, adding: “I’ve never been that close to him anyway. There’s a lack of humility, a lack of seeing what the other guy thinks.

“He’s more kick-ass and take names, take numbers. I think he paid a price for that.

“I think he served the president badly. I don’t like what he did, and I think it hurt the president [Bush Jr] having his iron-ass view of everything.”

In a statement on Thursday, Rumsfeld defended his role, saying of the father and son who were respectively the 41st and 43rd US presidents: “Bush 41 is getting up in years and misjudges Bush 43, who I found made his own decisions.

“There are hundreds of memos on http://www.rumsfeld.com that represent advice DoD [department of defense] gave the president.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A 2005 picture of then US president George W Bush, flanked by vice-president Dick Cheney, left, and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, right. Photograph: Alex Wong / Pool/EPA

Dick Cheney, who served as defence secretary during George HW Bush’s 1989-1993 presidency and later as vice-president under President George W Bush, also earned Bush Sr’s disapproval with his actions after the 9/11 attacks.

“I don’t know, he just became very hardline and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with,” Bush Sr told his biographer.

George W Bush – who earlier said it would have been “out of character” for his father to intervene during his time in the Oval Office – said he was “proud to have served with Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld”.

A statement from his office added: “Dick Cheney did a superb job as vice-president, and I was fortunate to have him by my side throughout my presidency.

“Don Rumsfeld ably led the Pentagon and was an effective secretary of defense.”

George Bush Sr book reveals a more dangerous Dick Cheney than anyone knew Read more

Another Bush son, Jeb Bush, who is currently a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has already been embroiled in rows with rivals including Donald Trump over his brother’s response to the 11 September attacks.

He said on Thursday that he had not read the new book, but added: “My thought was that Dick Cheney served my dad really well. And he served as vice-president, he served my brother really well. Different eras. Different times.”

The biography – Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey Of George Herbert Walker Bush – which is to be published next week has prodded back into the headlines the toxic legacy of Bush Jr’s post-9/11 interventions, as well as shedding light on details of the 41st president’s administration.

One notable revelation was that Cheney, then defense secretary, had commissioned a study on how many tactical nuclear weapons would be needed to eliminate a division of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard. The answer was 17.