LES ASPIN DIES AT 56

Les Aspin, the one-time Pentagon “whiz kid” who returned to oversee the downsizing of the military as President Clinton’s first Defense secretary, died Sunday night after suffering a massive stroke.TIME Defense correspondent Mark Thompsonremembers Aspin as gifted and idiosyncratic — a “perfect idea man” who flourished during a long and controversial tenure as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. But as Defense secretary, Aspin’s utter absorption in minutiae and his rumpled, professorial style did him in. “He was consumed by his work, and it ultimately proved his downfall,” Thompson says. “He was not a manager, and that was really unfortunate, because he had a lot of good things to say. Among Democratic lawmakers, he was the only one who called the Persian Gulf war right.”