John O. Marsh Jr., presidential 'conscience' and Army secretary, dies at 92

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Obituaries
John O. Marsh Jr., presidential ‘conscience’ and Army secretary, dies at 92

By Adam Bernstein
February 4 at 3:02 PM

John O. Marsh Jr., a conservative Virginia Democrat who interrupted his congressional career in the 1960s to serve his National Guard duty in Vietnam foxholes, became one of President Gerald Ford’s closest advisers and spent eight years as Army secretary under President Ronald Reagan, died Feb. 4 at an assisted-living center in Raphine, Va. He was 92. ... Mr. Marsh had complications from a recent stroke, said his son John O. “Rob” Marsh III.

Although not widely known outside the policymaking corridors of Washington — the New York Times called him one of the longest-serving but “least known” senior officials in the Defense Department — Mr. Marsh was a powerful backstage player at the White House and the Pentagon during the 1970s and 1980s.

He retained the demeanor of the folksy, soft-spoken country lawyer he had been during his early career. But he was also shrewd and subtle — a “careful, almost soulful political operative,” as Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward once described him. ... After a hardscrabble upbringing in the Shenandoah Valley, Mr. Marsh became a commissioned Army officer by 19, trained as a paratrooper, served 25 years in the Virginia National Guard and devoted much of his adult life to military affairs.

In late 1966, during his second term in Congress, he volunteered for a month-long stint in the Vietnam highlands, never revealing to other soldiers that he held national office. (He served under the command of then-Lt. Col. Alexander M. Haig Jr., the future four-star Army general who became chief of staff under Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Ford and secretary of state under Reagan.) ... On Capitol Hill, Mr. Marsh was a solid supporter of the Vietnam War and co-sponsored the bill that created the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission in 1966. Increasingly ill at ease in a party that was tilting ever leftward, he declined to seek election to a fifth term in 1970.
....

Adam Bernstein has spent his career putting the "post" in The Washington Post, first as an obituary writer and then as editor. The American Society of Newspaper Editors recognized Bernstein’s ability to exhume “the small details and anecdotes that get at the essence of the person.” He joined The Post in 1999. Follow https://twitter.com/bernsteinobits

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captcoley 1 minute ago (Edited)

Jack Marsh didn't decline to run in 1970 because the party was tilting left. He declined to run because he was one of 3 congressmen who voted against expelling Adam Clayton Powell from the House. He thought it was, as the Supreme Court ultimately held, unconstitutional. The 7th District was really segregationist and his backing a black man doomed him at the polls and he knew it when he voted. It was one of the most courageous votes I ever heard of.

[atreides1]

1. I met him, once

I was in the Army and he visited my unit. He shook my hand, asked me what my job was, we talked for a bit, he actually cared about the troops in the field. He was one of the better Army Secretary's, in my opinion!

May he Rest in Peace!