News

                            THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary

________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                       May 26, 1994


				
	  PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF LES ASPIN 
	 AS MEMBER AND CHAIR OF THE PRESIDENT'S FOREIGN 
		   INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY BOARD 


The President today announced the appointment of Les Aspin as
member and Chair of the President's Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board.

Les Aspin has long been at the center of U. S.  national
security policy making.  Most recently, as Secretary of Defense,
he initiated a fundamental reexamination of US military
requirements in light of the collapse of the Soviet Union and
the end of the Cold War. This Bottom Up Review, as it was
called, involved the uniformed military in an unprecedented
collaboration to determine the right defense for America. Mr.
Aspin's formulation of the dangers America faces in this new era
remains the most thorough, comprehensive guide to defense
requirements available.

     Before joining President Clinton's cabinet, he served as
chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, a position he
held since 1985. Mr. Aspin was first elected to Congress in 1970.

     Mr. Aspin began his career on the staff of former Wisconsin
Senator William Proxmire and moved on to the White House as
staff assistant to Walter Heller, Chairman of President
Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisors. Mr. Aspin was
commissioned in the Army under ROTC in 1966. Over the next two
years, he served at the Pentagon as one of Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara's "whiz kids." In 1968, Mr. Aspin returned to
Milwaukee to teach economics at Marquette University.

     Mr. Aspin was born on July 21, 1938 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
where he attended public grade school and public high school. Mr.
Aspin graduated summa cum laude from Yale University. He majored
in history where he received "Honors with Exceptional
Distinction" and was elected Phi Beta Kappa.  Mr. Aspin earned a
Masters degree from Oxford University for a combined major in
economics, politics, and philosophy. He completed a Ph.D in
economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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