Outgoing University President Lawrence H. Summers has pocketed a thank-you note from an unlikely ally in the Bush cabinet: Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, who praised the former Clinton administration official for supporting the military's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program at Harvard.

Despite the program's historically rocky relationship with the Harvard campus, Summers welcomed ROTC with open arms. In his short tenure as president, Summers spoke out in support of the program's role and appeared at its annual commissioning ceremonies—acts that did not go unnoticed by the Pentagon.

"You recognized the special career challenges those students chose to pursue; and in doing so, you honored all of your students and faculty," Rumsfeld writes in his letter, dated May 31. "Through your actions, you provided every ROTC student with an important sense of belonging, and for that I am most grateful."

At a ceremony under a tent in Tercentenary Theatre last Wednesday, the dispatch was read aloud as nine graduates were commissioned into the armed forces. Summers also received a commemorative plaque and a flag to thank him for his support of the program, according to his spokesman, John D. Longbrake.

Prior to Summers' tenure, no Harvard president had spoken at an ROTC commissioning ceremony since the program was evicted from campus at the height of the Vietnam War. The Faculty Council later voted in 1994 that Harvard's nondiscrimination policies banned it from funding students' participation in the program.

The Harvard College handbook states that “any discrimination based on…sexual orientation…is contrary to the principles and policies of Harvard University,” while the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” protocol requires the discharge of openly gay and lesbian service members.

Today, Harvard students participating in ROTC drill at MIT with funding from anonymous alumni, but Summers has worked to forge closer ties.

"As I said at the commissioning ceremony, whatever you think about any given policy issue—and there are important policy issues on which there are fundamentally divided opinions—I believe that service to our country is important and that our country is best served when great universities like Harvard stand with those who defend the freedom that makes all our contributions possible," Summers said today through his spokesman. "I look forward to the day when it is common and doesn't draw remark when an Ivy League president attends an ROTC commissioning ceremony."

Rumsfeld and Summers, who was Treasury secretary under President Clinton from 1999 to 2001, have served as cabinet officials in different administrations for opposing political parties, but the two have a lot in common. Both faced calls for their resignation—for Summers, from professors; for Rumsfeld, from retired generals. And both blamed the tumult on small segments of those two constituencies. But Rumsfeld ultimately found greater support from his boss when President Bush said he was "exactly what is needed." Summers, by contrast, lost the backing of several members of the Harvard Corporation, the University’s most powerful governing board.

This past fall, Rumsfeld and Summers found themselves on opposite sides of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” debate—a fact that goes unmentioned in the defense chief’s letter. The Pentagon threatened to block hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds to Harvard unless the Law School let military recruiters use its career placement office. Summers said in September that the military’s policy toward gay and lesbian service members was “corrosive.” And Harvard joined six other universities in filing a brief to the Supreme Court arguing that schools had a First Amendment right to exclude military recruiters. The court ultimately rejected that argument.

Rumsfeld's letter was confirmed today by a spokesman for the Defense Department, Army Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin. A copy was posted on the website of Advocates for Harvard ROTC, a group of alumni and supporters who have called for a return of ROTC to campus.

"The minute [Summers] came here he talked about patriotism," David Clayman ’38, the group's chairman emeritus, said today. "It indicates that Harvard should not be considered by the public a bed for...people who don't care about their country. It's an American institution."

–Staff writer Nicholas M. Ciarelli can be reached at ciarelli@fas.harvard.edu.