[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 89 (Friday, May 26, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7647-S7648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                LES ASPIN: A PUBLIC SERVANT AND A FRIEND

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, last Sunday the Nation lost one of its 
foremost leaders on military and defense policies, and I lost a good 
friend, with the passing of Les Aspin.
  I came to know and appreciate Les Aspin when we served together in 
the House of Representatives, and he and Junket, his huge, hairy sheep 
dog, shared an office down the hall from me in the Cannon House Office 
Building.
  I came to know and appreciate Les as a good and decent man who was 
never too busy to stop and exchange a joke with you.
  I also came to admire and respect him as a dedicated, selfless public 
servant. At the time of his death, he had spent more than 3 decades in 
public service as a Member of the House of Representatives, as chairman 
of the House Armed Services Committee, as a chief adviser on military 
policy to the Clinton-Gore campaign, as Secretary of Defense, and as 
the head of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
  No person could have been better prepared for these important and 
demanding positions. Les Aspin brought to them the best of education, 
including an undergraduate degree from Yale, a master's degree from 
Oxford University, and a Ph.D. in economics from MIT.
  And he had the best of training, as he had worked on the staffs of 
Senator William Proxmire, Dr. Walter Heller when he chaired the Council 
of Economic Advisers, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
  Not only was Les well educated and well versed in public policy, he 
was a person who cared deeply for his country and its citizens.
  Les Aspin may well be most remembered for his brief, but stormy 
tenure as the Secretary of Defense. To those who were surprised by his 
controversial tenure in this position, I can only say that I am 
surprised that they were surprised.
  Les Aspin has always been controversial--he was never afraid to take 
a position--at times, a lonely, unpopular decision. He was elected to 
Congress as a critic of the Vietnam war, but backed President Reagan's 
military buildup and the decision to go to war against Iraq.
  As chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Les Aspin was a 
one-man think tank, as he always seemed on the cutting edge of defense 
issues. An AP reporter dubbed him a ``strategic intellectual.'' He was 
as comfortable in dealing with foreign policy and defense issues as he 
was in reviewing Pentagon procurement practices. And he had that 
incredible and marvelous ability to present
 the most complicated and difficult public policy issues in simple and 
easily understood ways.

  Congressman Aspin was a logical choice to reshape the Pentagon and 
U.S. military in the post-cold-war era. When President-elect Clinton 
nominated him for the position of Secretary of Defense, the Washington 
Post noted that it seemed that Mr. Aspin had ``spent most of his 
professional life preparing for the defense secretary's job.'' The 
Washington Times remarked that he had ``devoted nearly every waking 
hour as a student, professional, and politician to thinking about 
weapons and soldiers.''
  Everyone knew that the adjustments to the post-Soviet world would be 
difficult and controversial--and they were. Secretary Aspin did not 
shrink from these challenges. He welcomed them. His time as head of the 
Pentagon was a time of shifting international commitments, and new 
challenges posed by the disintegration of the Soviet Union. This 
included the painful [[Page S7648]] downsizing of the military and the 
review and revision of the Pentagon's budget and procurement 
procedures.
  It was a time for the reshaping of a military that for a half-century 
had been designed to fight global war, and would now be remolded for 
world peace, keeping missions and for international humanitarian 
expeditions.
  Mr. President, the accolades and eulogies now being delivered in 
honor of Les Aspin, are well deserved and well earned. The United 
States is indeed indebted to Congressman and Secretary Aspin for his 
years of public service, for his legislative achievements, and for his 
tremendous contributions to the defense of our great and free country.
  But I will always remember him as my good and decent friend down the 
hall, with that huge hairy dog, who was never too busy to stop and 
share a laugh with you.
  Mr. President, my wife Linda and I extend to the family of Les Aspin 
our most heartfelt condolences. We share their grief and their loss.
  I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  

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