Richard Nixon’s view of Donald Rumsfeld was that he was “a ruthless little bastard”. Nixon, Andrew Cockburn says, may well have considered that to be a compliment but it didn’t make him any less wary of a man he dispatched to Brussels. Andrew Cockburn wrote a biography of Rumsfeld and the title itself tells a story. Published in the US under the title Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy, the European title was punchier – Rumsfeld: An American Disaster. Donald Rumsfeld died on Tuesday aged 88. He was a hugely influential figure in the administration of George W Bush,…

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