May 21, 1995:
Les Aspin, a Wisconsin Democrat and former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee who gave up his congressional seat to become President Clinton's first secretary of defense, dies of a stroke. He was 56.
Aspin took over Armed Services in 1985, ousting Illinois Democrat Melvin Price. His expertise on defense matters brought him into the Clinton Cabinet. But his tenure at Defense lasted less than a year. He began trying to implement Clinton's policy of lifting the ban against gays in the military. But what sealed his doom were chronic managerial problems; he was forced out of his job in December of '93.
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