Les Aspin
Les Aspin | |
---|---|
Peter Barca | |
Personal details | |
Born | Leslie Aspin Jr. July 21, 1938 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
Died | May 21, 1995 Washington, D.C., U.S. | (aged 56)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Maureen Shea
(m. 1969; div. 1979) |
Education | Yale University (BA) University of Oxford (MPhil) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) |
Military service | |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Years of service | 1966–1968 |
Rank | Captain |
Leslie Aspin Jr. (July 21, 1938 – May 21, 1995) was an American
In Congress, Aspin had a reputation as an intellectual who took a middle-of-the-road position on controversial issues. He supported the Reagan administration regarding the
As Secretary of Defense, Aspin faced complex social issues, such as the roles of homosexuals in uniform, and of women in combat, as well as major decisions regarding the use of military force in Somalia, Bosnia, and Haiti. He proposed budget cuts and restructuring of forces as part of the downsizing of the military after the end of the Cold War. The deaths of U.S. soldiers in Somalia because of inadequate military support led to his resignation.
Early life and education
Aspin was born in
Aspin met his wife, Maureen Shea, in
Aspin served a brief tenure as a congressional staff member for
U.S. Congress
Aspin ran as a peace candidate in 1970, opposing the
Aspin was elected as a Democrat to the 92nd and to the 11 succeeding Congresses and served from January 3, 1971, until his resignation January 20, 1993.[9] Aspin began his career in the United States House of Representatives as an outsider but honed his particular interest and expertise in defense matters. Before and during his tenure in the House, he had opposed the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
In his early years in
By 1985, when Aspin became chairman of the
Secretary of Defense
Nomination and confirmation
Aspin served as an adviser to Clinton on defense matters during the
Agenda and early difficulties
"Shortly after he took office, Aspin discussed dangers that had emerged with the end of the Cold War: the uncertainty that reform could succeed in the former Soviet Union; the enhanced possibility that terrorists or terrorist states could acquire nuclear weapons; the likely proliferation of regional conflicts; and the failure to take adequate account of the impact of the state of the domestic economy on U.S. national security interests. Given these conditions and the end of the Cold War, it seemed clear that the Pentagon was entering a period of potentially profound change. Aspin looked like a sound choice to manage this change.
As it turned out, Aspin faced difficulties from the beginning. A serious heart ailment put him in the hospital for several days in February 1993, after barely a month in office. A month later he was back in the hospital for implantation of a
Gender and sexuality in the military
The fallout from the controversy wounded both Clinton and Aspin politically and dragged on until December 1993, when, after many months of equivocation, confusion, and more controversy, Aspin released new regulations, known as the "
Also on the social side, Aspin had to deal with the volatile question of service women in combat. In April 1993 he announced a revised policy on the assignment of women in the armed forces: The services were to allow women to compete for assignments in combat aircraft; the Navy was to open additional ships to women and draft a proposal for Congress to remove existing legislative barriers to the assignment of women to combat vessels; and the Army and
Defense budget and "bottom-up review"
Development of the Defense budget for FY 1994, beginning on 1 October 1993, remained Aspin's biggest task. The budget process proved more complicated than usual, owing to Clinton's campaign pledge to reduce DoD funding and to a "bottom-up review" of the military structure ordered by Aspin shortly after he took office.
Because of the growing threat of regional conflicts, Aspin wanted to have a strong capability to carry out limited military operations, including peacekeeping, and to maintain "a strong peacetime presence of U.S. forces around the world". The bottom-up review report, which Aspin released in September 1993,
The conclusions of the bottom-up review influenced the development of the FY 1994 Defense budget, although detailed work on the budget had begun as soon as Aspin took office. In March 1993 Aspin introduced a FY 1994 budget proposal costing $263.4 billion, about $12 billion below current levels, and reflecting cuts in the military services similar to those later included in the bottom-up review. To some critics of high military spending, Aspin's budget plan differed little from that of the Bush administration.
In the fall of 1993 Aspin began to tell the White House that the five-year Defense budget, reflecting the results of the bottom-up review, would exceed the more than $1 trillion projected by the Clinton administration. In December 1993 he put the anticipated shortfall at no less than $50 billion, the consequence of inaccurate inflation estimates, a military pay raise, and failure to account for other Pentagon costs, including peacekeeping operations. The size of the force needed to meet the two regional wars scenario contributed to the projected budget shortfall. Furthermore, Aspin was on record as favoring the use of U.S. troops in regional conflicts, as opposed to other decisionmakers, including General Colin Powell, chairman of the JCS. Aspin's departure from office early in 1994 left further decisions on the Defense budget to his successor. The final FY 1994 budget amounted to a little under $252 billion in total obligational authority.
Like his predecessors Carlucci and Cheney, Aspin faced the perennial issue of base closures, which could also affect the Defense budget. In March 1993 he released a plan to close an additional 31 large military installations and to shrink or consolidate 134 other sites, projecting a savings of over $3 billion a year beginning in 2000. A new Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission approved the proposal, which went into effect when Congress accepted it as a package.
The SDI program also held important budget implications. In May 1993 Aspin announced "the end of the Star Wars era," explaining that the collapse of the Soviet Union had determined the fate of SDI. He renamed the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and established its priorities as theater and national missile defense and useful follow-on technologies. Aspin's assignment of responsibility for BMDO to the under secretary of defense (acquisition and technology) signified the downgrading of the program.
Global crises and initiatives
While seeking solutions to the complex budget and force structure issues, Aspin found himself beset with difficult regional problems and conflicts that demanded decisions and action. In
The unstable situation in Haiti, where elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been ousted from office by the military in September 1991, presented another regional problem. The United States pressured the military government to restore Aristide. In July 1993, the Haitian military regime agreed to reinstate Aristide by October 30, 1993, but then refused to step down. In October, in an effort Clinton approved even though Aspin opposed it, the United States sent the USS Harlan County carrying 200 troops to Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. Met by a hostile mob of armed Haitians, the ship turned away without attempting to undertake its mission, which the Pentagon described as an effort to professionalize the Haitian military and undertake civil assistance projects. Some observers attacked Aspin for not taking a harder stand in the administration against an action he opposed and then aborting the effort in the face of local opposition.
During Aspin's term the U.S. was concerned that
In the
The worsening crisis in
, but thought that the use of sophisticated weapons was a more reasonable option. Eventually the administration decided on an airdrop of humanitarian aid, even though Aspin did not favor the plan.In March 1993, United Nations Operation in Somalia II began in an effort to create conditions to enable the Somalis to rebuild the country. The United States cut its troops in Somalia to some 4,000 and then added 400 Army Rangers in August 1993. At that time, confronting criticism at home that the United States was getting more deeply involved in the factional violence in Somalia without a clear rationale, Aspin explained that U.S. troops would remain until order had been restored in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, progress had been made in disarming rival clans, and effective police forces were operating in the country's major cities. At the same time the United States increased its military efforts against a leading Somali warlord, Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
Criticism and final days in office
In September 1993, General Powell asked Aspin to approve the request of the U.S. commander in Somalia for tanks, armored vehicles and AC-130 Spectre gunships for his forces. Aspin turned down the request and did not take Powell's request seriously. At some point during a lunch meeting, Powell presented to Aspin on the need of additional tanks, armored vehicles, AC-130 Spectre gunships air-support to support the U.S. Troops that were about to be deployed for Battle of Mogadishu and, discussing the battle preparation instead of paying attention to Powell's recommendation, Aspin caused Powell to grow more irritated. This was believed to be the primary reason for Powell's early departure as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.[23] Shortly thereafter Aidid's forces in Mogadishu killed 18 U.S. soldiers and wounded more than 75 in attacks that also resulted in the shooting down of two U.S. helicopters and the capture of one pilot in the Battle of Mogadishu. In the face of severe congressional criticism, Aspin admitted that in view of what had happened he had made a mistake, but stated that the request for armored equipment had been made within the context of delivering humanitarian aid to Somalia rather than protecting troops. In an appearance before a congressional committee to answer questions about the Somalia disaster, Aspin made an unfavorable impression and appeared weak in response to the detailed probing and criticism of his performance. The president publicly defended Aspin but made clear that the White House was not involved in the decision not to send armor reinforcements to Somalia. Several members of Congress called on Clinton to ask for Aspin's resignation.
On 15 December 1993 President Clinton announced Aspin's resignation, for personal reasons. Given the problems that Aspin encountered during his short term, most obviously the losses in Mogadishu, observers assumed that the president had asked him to step down. Speculation in the media centered on the Somalia embarrassment and on Aspin's differences with the Office of Management and Budget over how much the Defense budget should be cut. The secretary's health problems may well have also been a factor. One news magazine stated that Aspin's major handicap was "neither his famously unmilitary bearing nor his inability to discipline himself or the enormous Pentagon bureaucracy; it is his politician's instinct for the middle ground on defense issues." Aspin continued to serve as Secretary of Defense until February 3, 1994, when William Perry took office.
After Aspin's resignation, a number of observers would come to his defense about his job performance. This included Newsweek, who said the real fault for the events in Somalia lay with the United Nations.[24]
Final months and death
After leaving his position, Aspin joined the faculty of
Aspin had had increasing difficulty during the last years of his life with a
Marquette University named its Les Aspin Center for Government in his honor.
Electoral history
U.S. House (1970–1992)
Year | Election | Date | Elected | Defeated | Total | Plurality | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1970 | Primary[25] | Sep. 8 | Les Aspin | Democratic | 15,185 | 39.83% | Doug La Follette | Dem. | 15,165 | 39.78% | 38,124 | 20 |
Gerald T. Flynn | Dem. | 6,130 | 16.08% | |||||||||
Perry J. Anderson | Dem. | 1,644 | 4.31% | |||||||||
General[25] | Nov. 3 | Les Aspin | Democratic | 87,428 | 60.93% | Henry Schadeberg (inc)
|
Rep. | 56,067 | 39.07% | 143,495 | 31,361 | |
1972 | Primary[26] | Sep. 12 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 28,211 | 90.55% | Gerald H. Janca | Dem. | 2,943 | 9.45% | 31,154 | 25,268 |
General[26] | Nov. 7 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 122,973 | 64.41% | Merrill E. Stalbaum | Rep. | 66,665 | 34.91% | 190,937 | 56,308 | |
Charles J. Fortner | Amer. | 1,299 | 0.68% | |||||||||
1974 | General[27] | Nov. 5 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 81,902 | 70.49% | Leonard W. Smith | Rep. | 34,288 | 29.51% | 116,190 | 47,614 |
1976 | General[28] | Nov. 2 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 136,162 | 64.90% | William W. Petrie | Rep. | 71,427 | 34.05% | 209,794 | 64,735 |
Eugene Zimmerman | Amer. | 2,205 | 1.05% | |||||||||
1978 | General[29] | Nov. 7 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 77,146 | 54.49% | William W. Petrie | Rep. | 64,437 | 45.51% | 141,583 | 12,709 |
1980 | General[30] | Nov. 4 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 126,222 | 56.24% | Kathryn H. Canary | Rep. | 96,047 | 42.79% | 224,437 | 30,175 |
Arthur F. Jackson | Lib. | 2,168 | 0.97% | |||||||||
1982 | General[31] | Nov. 2 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 95,055 | 61.01% | Peter N. Jansson | Rep. | 59,309 | 38.07% | 155,802 | 35,746 |
Arthur F. Jackson | Lib. | 1,438 | 0.92% | |||||||||
1984 | General[32] | Nov. 6 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 76,384 | 65.07% | Robert V. Nolan | Rep. | 41,007 | 34.93% | 117,391 | 35,377 |
1986 | General[33] | Nov. 4 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 106,288 | 74.26% | Iris Peterson | Rep. | 34,495 | 24.10% | 143,137 | 71,793 |
John Graf | L&F | 2,354 | 1.64% | |||||||||
1988 | General[34] | Nov. 8 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 158,552 | 76.16% | Bernard J. Weaver | Rep. | 49,620 | 23.84% | 208,172 | 108,932 |
1990 | General[35] | Nov. 6 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 93,961 | 100.0% | 93,961 | 93,961 | ||||
1992 | General[36] | Nov. 3 | Les Aspin (inc) | Democratic | 147,495 | 57.56% | Mark Neumann | Rep. | 104,352 | 40.72% | 256,238 | 43,143 |
John Graf | Ind.
|
4,391 | 1.71% |
References
- ^ "Leslie Aspin - William J. Clinton Administration". Office of the Secretary of Defense - Historical Office.
- ^ "Fund-raising drive begins for Les Aspin scholarship", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 30, 1995. Accessed September 17, 2007. "The Shorewood High School Class of 1956 is raising money for a scholarship in fellow graduate Les Aspin's name.... He was a member of the 1956 class, which will celebrate its 40th class reunion July 20."
- ^ "The Milwaukee Journal - Google News Archive Search".
- ^ "Les Aspin".
- ^ "Les Aspin". U.S. Department of Defense. Retrieved 2012-11-08.
- ^ "The Honorable Les Aspin". Marquette University. 2007. Retrieved 2012-11-08.
- ^ "La Follette To Run For Congress". Chicago Tribune. 1996-07-09. Retrieved 2012-11-09.
- ^ Oral histories conducted with Edwin M. Andersen and Aspin adviser Robert Lange
- ^ "ASPIN, Leslie". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 2012-11-09.
- ^ ISBN 0-06-001157-2.
- Washington Post. Retrieved 2012-11-09.
- ^ "Administration Campaigns for Nerve Gas Production". Los Angeles Times. 1985-02-13. Retrieved 2012-11-09.
- ^ "Aspin Ousted as House Armed Services Chairman". Associated Press. 1987-01-07. Retrieved 2012-11-13.
- ^ "Aspin Wins Battle to Head Armed Services Committee". Los Angeles Times. 1987-01-23. Retrieved 2012-11-13.
- ^ "CONFRONTATION IN THE GULF; Aspin Sees Air Strikes Leading to a Quick Victory". The New York Times. 1991-01-09. Retrieved 2012-11-13.
- ^ "Les Aspin, 56, Dies; Member of Congress And Defense Chief". The New York Times. 1995-05-22. Retrieved 2012-11-14.
- ^ "Clinton Nominees Received Warmly". Chicago Tribune. 1993-01-08. Retrieved 2012-11-14.
- ^ "THE INAUGURATION: The New Cabinet; Senate Confirms First Nominees Of Clinton Team". The New York Times. 1993-01-21. Retrieved 2012-11-14.
- ^ "Leslie Aspin". Historical Office of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ^ "Clinton Seeking $14 Billion Cut By the Military". The New York Times. 1993-02-04. Retrieved 2012-12-14.
- ^ "U.S. Forces in the Clinton Era". The Baltimore Sun. 1993-09-02. Retrieved 2012-12-14.
- ^ "Pentagon To Trim Chunk Off Military". Orlando Sentinel. 1993-09-02. Retrieved 2012-12-14.
- )
- ^ Newsweek, 'The Collapse Of Les Aspin', John Barry, 12-26-1993
- ^ a b "Elections in Wisconsin". The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1971 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. 1971. pp. 296, 312. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
- ^ a b Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1973). "Elections in Wisconsin". The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1973 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. pp. 799, 818. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
- ^ Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1975). "Elections in Wisconsin". The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1975 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. pp. 800, 820. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
- ^ Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1977). "Elections in Wisconsin". The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1977 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. pp. 885, 907. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
- ^ Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1979). "Elections in Wisconsin". The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1979–1980 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. pp. 899, 917. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
- ^ Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1981). "Elections in Wisconsin". The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1981–1982 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. pp. 888, 909. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
- ^ Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1983). "Elections in Wisconsin". The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1983–1984 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. pp. 882, 904. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
- ^ Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1985). "Elections in Wisconsin". The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1985–1986 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. pp. 900, 918. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
- ^ Theobald, H. Rupert; Barish, Lawrence S., eds. (1987). "Elections in Wisconsin". The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1987–1988 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. pp. 882, 900. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
- ^ Barish, Lawrence S.; Theobald, H. Rupert, eds. (1989). "Elections in Wisconsin". The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1989–1990 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. pp. 905, 919. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
- ^ Barish, Lawrence S.; Theobald, H. Rupert, eds. (1991). "Elections in Wisconsin". The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1991–1992 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. pp. 892, 909. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
- ^ Barish, Lawrence S.; Theobald, H. Rupert, eds. (1993). "Elections in Wisconsin". State of Wisconsin Blue Book 1993–1994 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. pp. 897, 916. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
Further reading
- Aspin, Les. Defense for a New Era: Lessons of the Persian Gulf War (US House of Representatives, Committee on Armed Services, 1992) online.
External links
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
- Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
- Profile at Vote Smart
- Marquette University's Les Aspin Center for Government
- Les Aspin's biography on DefenseLink.mil
- Interview about the MX missile for the WGBH series, War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
- Les Aspin at Find a Grave
- Appearances on C-SPAN