Ron Suskind, The One Percent Doctrine (2006)

Rumsfeld told a group of senior Pentagon aides, “I never again want our army to arrive somewhere and meet the CIA on the ground.” To a gathering of top generals in “the tank,” the Joint Chiefs' secure conference room, he was even more succinct: “Every CIA success,” he told them, “is a DoD failure.”

— Ron Suskind

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Rumsfeld told a group of senior Pentagon aides, “I never again want our army to arrive somewhere and meet the CIA on the ground.” To a gathering of top generals in “the tank,” the Joint Chiefs' secure conference room, he was even more succinct: “Every CIA success,” he told them, “is a DoD failure.”" in the context of "Ron Suskind, The One Percent Doctrine (2006)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Donald Rumsfeld" (Quotes about Rumsfeld) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Donald Rumsfeld

About Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Rumsfeld (9 July 1932 – 29 June 2021) was the 21st United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 2001 to 2006, succeeded by Robert Gates. He also served as the 13th Defense Secretary in 1975–1977 under President Ford, and in other roles under various presidents.