January 08, 2004
This article points out that Time's original choice of Person of the Year was actually Donald Rumsfeld. However, he declined the honor and instead pointed out that the American Soldier was more deserving than he:
Rumsfeld told guests at a holiday party that in this year of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military deserved the honor more than he did, which is why Army Sgts. Marquette Whiteside and Ronald Buxton and Spc. Billie Grimes turned up on Time's Dec. 29 cover.
You don't have to like Rummy, but you sure cannot say he is not completely dedicated to the Armed Forces of the United States.
Time Managing Editor James Kelly appears to confirm Rumseld's self-effacing act, if only obliquely, in an editor's note recounting that when he and several other editors "met with Rumsfeld at the Pentagon in November to talk about the war, [the Defense Secretary] made the pitch, unsolicited by us, that the Person of the Year should be the American soldier. (Or as he put it, the American volunteer.)"
(Hat-tip to eTalkingHead)
