Ex Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to publish memoirs

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld listens to testimony during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on what military leaders knew about the combat death in Afghanistan of U.S. Army Ranger and former football star Pat Tillman, in Washington, August 1, 2007.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, architect of the unpopular Iraq war, will publish his memoirs and donate the proceeds to charity, Penguin Group said on Monday.

Rumsfeld, a pugnacious figure appointed Secretary of Defense at the start of President George W. Bush's first term in January 2001, resigned in November 2006.

He quit after widespread national anger over the policy in Iraq, where the conflict appeared to be spinning out of control amid mounting U.S. casualties, led to Bush's Republicans losing control over Congress to the Democrats.

Bush said Rumsfeld, who dismissed calls for a bigger force when he mounted the 2003 invasion but quickly saw Iraq collapse into factional fighting and attacks by al Qaeda, "understands that Iraq is not working well enough, fast enough."

Rumsfeld had also served as defense secretary from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, making him the United States second-longest serving defense secretary.

Rumsfeld, 75, also served as a congressman for Illinois.

His memoirs will be published by the Penguin imprint Sentinel, which said Rumsfeld had forgone an advance.

The proceeds will be donated to a not-for-profit foundation he set up to fund global microfinance efforts, foster public service among promising young people through educational grants and build links between America and central Asia.

"The book will include previously untold stories and events, ranging from his youth during the Depression and World War II, to his time in Congress during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, to his service in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan Administrations," said Adrian Zackheim, publisher of the Sentinel and Portfolio imprints.

It will also cover the six years in which he served under Bush.

No publication date has been set.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by David Storey)