Ex-Congressman, Defense Secretary Les Aspin Dies

WASHINGTON - Former Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who drew political fire that contributed to his departure from the Pentagon, died yesterday after suffering a massive stroke. He was 56.

Mr. Aspin, an 11-term congressman, was praised by President Clinton and his successor as a strategic intellectual.

"He brought the light of his joy in living, and the heat of his intellect, to every occasion," Clinton said in a statement issued by the White House.

Mr. Aspin was Clinton's first defense secretary. When he resigned in December 1993, he was replaced by his deputy, William Perry.

Perry called Mr. Aspin "a strong strategic thinker."

At the time of his death, he was the head of Clinton's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

His cardiologist, Dr. David Pearle said Mr. Aspin's ex-wife, Maureen, brother, Jim, and close companion of many years, Sharon Sarton of Lake Geneva, Wis., were with him when he died at Georgetown University Medical Center. Mr. Aspin and his wife were divorced in 1979 and had no children.

Rep. Aspin had been chairman of the House Armed Services Committee when Clinton nominated him to be defense secretary.

Mr. Aspin had worked at the Pentagon during the height of the Vietnam War in the 1960s as one of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's "whiz kids."

Years later when he returned at the helm of the Pentagon, Mr. Aspin became caught in the crossfire over Clinton's plan to drop the ban on gays in the military. At the same time, U.S. troops were trying to impose order in Somalia to allow the United Nations to feed starving citizens there.

And the military faced new challenges posed by the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and its Communist alliance in Eastern Europe, putting Mr. Aspin under pressure to make deep cuts in the military budget.

Mr. Aspin was criticized for a $3,105 roof repair on his Washington house. The government-funded repairs were needed to protect military security and communications equipment installed in his attic.

He was also criticized for extending a business trip to Europe in order to vacation in Venice with Sarton. The entourage that accompanied him cost taxpayers $42,000.

After 18 American soldiers were killed in an October 1993 firefight with Somali clansmen, reports surfaced that Mr. Aspin had twice rebuffed military leaders when they recommended sending tanks and armored vehicles along with additional troops to Somalia.

Mr. Aspin won praise from some quarters for his work to revise the ban on homosexuals and for expanding the role of women in the military. He ordered the services to allow women to fly combat missions and serve on most Navy warships.

Born in Milwaukee on July 21, 1938, and educated at Yale, Oxford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr. Aspin served on Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire's staff.

Mr. Aspin taught at Marquette University before running for Congress as an anti-Vietnam War Democrat from a district that included Racine and Kenosha, Wis.

Elected in 1970, he eventually relinquished his gadfly posture. In 1985, when aging Rep. Mel Price of Illinois had difficulty running the Armed Services Committee, Rep. Aspin vaulted over seven senior members to take control.