WESLEY PRUDEN, Eo Chg JOSETTE SHINER Morag cr TODLINDBERG, Er oie Eto ye ‘MARY LOU FORBES, ConmenaryEdior ‘WOODY WEST, Asse Etior ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE ora Lage PRESTON E.INNERST, Deny Mang Edoor TEDAGRES BARBARA TAYLOR JOSEPH WSCOPIN FRANCIS 8.COOMOS JR. Asso Mang Eons : RONALD S GODWIN. Hie Psion ‘KEITH COOPERRIDER, Ch Fi Opicer MICHAEL R. MAHR Adesig Diner CRAIG SINMERS, Craton Dintr PETER COURTRIGHT, Manin Dizor CHRIS AMBROSINL Pducoe Dieser PAULA GRAY HUNKER, feoics Dror SARA COOPERRUDER, Carput Series Doecor America’s Newspaper | | By Martin Edwin Andersen | P[[ree fst shit at one of the entrances to.the old | American Motors factory in Kenosha, Wis., had ended and Les Aspin, Oxford intellectual and fot. mer Pentagon whiz kid, had just promised to buy a round of coifee and doughnuts for a uandfut of bleary eyed campaign workers. Atthe front door f te Dou. ‘ot Hole, he was tapped short by a wizened old union activist named Frank Socha, wh, with tears in his eyes ‘announced, “D'ya hear? Vince Lambardi just died Mz Ash paused fora mement pot hie arm around the man, and said, with feeling, “Gee, thats too bad. bari was a winner” ‘The scene in many ways described the quintessen- tial Me. Aspin, a driven and gregarious man ho, what- ever his final place in history, will be remembered oy the many who knew him as a noble presence wo won the loyalty of factory workers end day eens ood wert on fo win 12 times ina once and Acure “swing” congressional district. ‘Tae year 1970, when Mc: Aspin ran his frst campaign for Congress, was a tough time tobe both a realist ad 4 reformer, ‘and even then his restless and Intellect set him apart from bath the ati-poltics of the Nil was not pat of Mr Asp vocabulary, no was he ver cowed inte believing te gem ae ne {of Nixon lore | _,ATaconteur of the first order, the former numbers woud reais is ede anon amas would re vine ftom oo weekend, the Pe 's “best and itest” were beside themeelves efter having “Lost” 13,000 GIs: Net ‘o the enemy, he would say in a confidential tone that Ansel and hs atabe uae eu A on yan ‘coulda find where they had put tem. ‘Atthe same time, ina campaign darkened by the shad i E gE - : i i : — aghartin Barn Atdroey was oo chai ir of he Youth for spin committee ins first congression. 1 campaign in 1970, 7 Remembering Les Aspin | ‘ows nat only of the killings of protesting students at Kent and Jackson States, but also the fatal Bombing by Fadl. cals of the Army Math Research Center in Madison, Wis, the former coliege professor tied to educate his audiences on the futility of continuing the war in Indo- China. Lectures on morality were left to others; for the intense, skeptical Mr. Aspin, the continued conflict seemed almost an affront the intellect “What we want to accomplish isn't’ worth the ‘resources that it Would take to do it” he said, unwa- ‘ering, in union halls full of “hard hats" on college carn uses full of angry students, and before Veterans orga. nizations whose members were mostly lucky enough ‘ot to have fought in the:losing Viemam propositian, ve yr ater Mi Aap os ‘McNamara, confirmed what-Les already knew. 108 managed President dokneons i fated ‘isconsin primary campaign. But it was his tes to Robert Kennedy that, in 197, gave stllheartbrokes fans of the murdered presidential candidate a new sense of hope. Politics that it regained some ofits nobiii ness helped Mr Aspin eke out « 20-vote primary vie tous home district appearances, Mr, Aspin later moved the Fi note dnabed svn ct President 0 3 Clinton's first vecretary sdsioeee Tt is ironic that the od in th a rots idle nan wit a inetlevel ofthe end of he Cold Wer et, in many legacy —nwowa to those of us wha ‘tm asa friend and neighbor —may well ave Young people of his district a sense of politics as a noble advenfire and a place where real contributions could be made. ‘Les Aspin, like Vince Lombardi, was a winner. ———S——— = = (GEOFFREY H. EDWARDS, tie Peso, Gene Manger