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[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 86 (Tuesday, May 23, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7232-S7233]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                         IN MEMORY OF LES ASPIN

  Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I am deeply saddened by the death of my 
close friend and colleague, Les Aspin. Many of us in this body have 
known Les for many, many, many years and worked very closely with him.
  Les Aspin devoted his life to public service. In his younger years, 
he served in the Senate on the staff of our former colleague, Senator 
William Proxmire. He also served as staff assistant to Walter Heller, 
the former Chairman of President Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisers 
and on the staff of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
  Les Aspin was elected to the House of Representatives in 1970, and he 
immediately sought and was granted membership on the House Armed 
Services Committee on which he later served as chairman from 1985 
through 1992.
  I had the great honor and privilege of working with Les since I came 
to the Senate in 1973. From 1987 through 1992, we served respectively 
as chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. During 
that time, when our chairmanships overlapped, we developed a close 
personal and professional relationship, and we forged six National 
Defense Authorization Acts during that period.
  Mr. President, these years were marked by national defense challenges 
of great difficulty and complexity. In 1987, the cold war had begun to 
thaw, but barely so. There were many divisions in Congress on national 
defense issues, ranging from the size of the defense budget to the 
procurement of particular weapons systems to the appropriate course of 
national strategy. At a time when many sought substantial reductions in 
national defense commitments and programs, Les Aspin provided a voice 
for a strong national security and a sensible American foreign policy.
  As the former Soviet Union collapsed, many sought to rapidly 
dismantle our military establishment. Les Aspin recognized the 
continuing dangers facing the United States and successfully led the 
House of Representatives in support of a measured defense builddown, 
which was designed to maintain our military capacity in an era of 
defense reductions. Les was a particularly forceful advocate for 
defense conversion and retraining programs designed to assist military 
personnel, civilian workers, and the defense industry in adjusting to a 
new era with new challenges.
  Les was also both an originator and strong supporter in the House, 
and as Secretary of Defense, of the program [[Page S7233]] that is 
known as the Nunn-Lugar program that works for nuclear and chemical 
dismantlement in the former Soviet Union that has been so effective in 
helping denuclearize three former nuclear states and also helped in 
dismantling both chemical and nuclear weapons. We have a long way to go 
in that regard, but Les Aspin was on board when that ship was launched, 
which is probably our most important national security challenge--that 
is, nonproliferation in the breakup of the Soviet empire.
  During this entire period, I developed tremendous respect for the 
breadth of Les Aspin's knowledge and his devotion to the cause of 
national defense. Les was a brilliant analyst, but he was more than a 
scholar; he was an outstanding legislator and a master at putting 
together coalitions in the House of Representatives during a very tough 
period of time for national security.
  I will always treasure the memories of working with Les on the House-
Senate conferences on the National Defense Authorization Act that were 
enacted during the period in which we chaired our respective 
committees. The challenge of crafting a conference agreement was always 
daunting in the contentious atmosphere of the cold war and post-cold-
war eras. Each year, hundreds of language and funding differences 
divided the two Houses--and we were continually faced with the threat 
of a veto over controversial issues such as the ABM Treaty, abortion, 
and prerogatives of the executive branch.
  Les and I talked on the telephone and met very frequently, not just 
during conference but also in the months before we passed either the 
House or Senate bill. These meetings were quiet and unpublicized, but 
they enabled us to shape bills in both the House and the Senate which 
could be reconciled in conference and also signed into law by a 
Republican President.
  Much as I appreciated and admired Les Aspin's policy and legislative 
skills, what I enjoyed most about Les was his sense of humor. 
Frequently, when a conference point reached its most critical point, we 
could count on a story from Les to break the tension and produce a 
bipartisan compromise. Nobody loved a joke more than Les Aspin, and I 
can still see that big grin on his face laughing heartily in the middle 
of a conference right at a crucial moment, which gave us the kind of 
balance, the kind of sense of priorities to understand that it was our 
job to reconcile our differences and to come to conclusions in the 
interest of national security. He never lost sight of the serious 
policy issues that confronted us, but he never got personal in his 
fervent support for one position or another.
  Les Aspin served as Secretary of Defense during a particularly 
difficult time. I enjoyed working very closely with him and his staff 
during his tenure as Secretary of Defense. Lacking a cold war enemy and 
a national consensus on defense issues, Les was faced with the 
extraordinary challenges of managing a defense builddown while 
retaining essential military capabilities. The complex and new 
international circumstances surrounding events in places such as the 
former Yugoslavia, Somalia, and Haiti added to the complexity of his 
task. Throughout this period, he continued to work diligently toward 
building a new foundation for our defense needs in the 21st century. 
And as Secretary of Defense, he laid a foundation for the defense 
drawdown that hopefully will avoid the mistakes of the past. At least 
he did his part.
  During his years of service as a Member of the House Armed Services 
Committee and as Secretary of Defense, Les continually fought for a 
strong, well-equipped, and affordable national security. He was always 
on the cutting edge of national defense policy during both the cold war 
and during the post-cold-war builddown. His creative approaches to 
national strategy, acquisition policies, and defense budget matters 
have made a lasting and indelible contribution to this Nation's 
security.
  After his service as Secretary of Defense, he continued to serve our 
Nation as chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory 
Board, as chairman to the Commission on Intelligence, and as a member 
of the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces. It was in 
this capacity that I last talked to him on the telephone at length 
about some of the aspirations he had for changing our intelligence 
community. Les never lost his ardor or his commitment to public 
service.
  Mr. President, the Nation has lost a devoted public servant who 
contributed much and who had so much more to contribute to our national 
security.
  I have lost a valued friend and a real colleague, a friendship that I 
will cherish forever, and a man that I will miss very much.
  I thank the Chair.

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