Donald Rumsfeld Reveals He’s A Country Music Fan

Country stars weren’t the only ones who walked the red carpet at the 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was also in attendance. We were surprised to learn that Rumsfeld is a longtime country music fan.

“I’ve been a country music fan for many, many, many decades,” Rumsfeld tells CountryMusicIsLove. “I was out doing a book signing out at Nellis Air Force Base, I’ve got a new book out called “Known and Unknown: A Memoir.” I was signing books and these wonderful folks here were out there entertaining the troops so I went over and listened to the concert they put on and they invited me to come over here this evening.”

“I can remember taking a whole bunch of records with me when I went over to be ambassador to NATO back in 1973 so my children, who were little kids then, would have a chance to hear those records and learn about Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette and all those folks.”

Rumsfeld also took a moment to weigh in on the turmoil in the Middle East.

“If you think of those countries they’ve got a very young population, they are largely unemployed and their governments are not moving fast enough toward freer political and freer economic systems so they don’t have the kinds of opportunities we have in this country,” Rumsfeld tells us. “Now you’re in the 21st century, the information age, and they can see what’s going on in other countries, which wasn’t the case before. They see movies, they see television, they see Facebook and Twitter and that causes ferment and upset.”

Rumsfeld’s “Known and Unknown: A Memoir” is available HERE.