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Stanley Rogers Resor Dead: Former Army Secretary Under Presidents Johnson And Nixon Dies At 94

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL 04/18/12 11:03 PM ET AP

Stanley Rogers Resor

WASHINGTON -- Stanley R. Resor, who served two presidents as secretary of the Army for six years during the height of the Vietnam War and represented the U.S. during force reduction negotiations in the mid-1970s, has died. He was 94.

Resor died Tuesday at his home in Washington, D.C., said a son, Ed Resor.

Resor was born in New York City on Dec. 5, 1917. His father, Stanley B. Resor, was president of the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.

Resor was 11 when he and family friends visited Jackson Hole, Wyo. He persuaded his father to buy a cattle ranch there, beginning a lifelong tie to the area. He later served as a board member for the Jackson Hole Land Trust.

After graduating from Yale University in 1939, Resor entered the university's law school but left to join the Army in 1942. He served in the 10th Armored Division during World War II and was among those surrounded at Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge. He was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and the Silver Star during his service and left the Army as a lieutenant colonel.

He earned a law degree from Yale in 1946 and practiced corporate law in New York with the firm Debevoise & Plimpton. He left private practice in 1965 to serve as undersecretary of the Army. Three months later, in July 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him Army secretary. He continued in that position after President Richard M. Nixon's election in 1968, then left in 1971 and returned to his law practice.

Resor served as U.S. ambassador to the mutual and balanced force reduction negotiations in Vienna from 1973-78 and as undersecretary of defense for policy from August 1978 to March 1979. He then practiced law with Debevoise & Plimpton until he retired in 1991.

He married Jane Lawler Pillsbury in 1942, and they had seven sons. She died in 1994. In addition to his sons, Resor is survived by his wife, Louise, whom he married in 1999.

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WASHINGTON -- Stanley R. Resor, who served two presidents as secretary of the Army for six years during the height of the Vietnam War and represented the U.S. during force reduction negotiations in th...
WASHINGTON -- Stanley R. Resor, who served two presidents as secretary of the Army for six years during the height of the Vietnam War and represented the U.S. during force reduction negotiations in th...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Geo Bruno
Balance the farces that release within you
10:25 AM on 04/19/2012
He seemed to live a lot longer than many of the VN vets I knew.

I guess he did have agent orange sprayed on him to often
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Poindexter718
This machine annoys fascists.
08:53 AM on 04/19/2012
Impressive life.
HUFFPOST PUNDIT
Cacey
Ignore rudeness, honor discussion
08:17 AM on 04/19/2012
While we may remember many including Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon for other great things they did, we can never remember any with favor or honor regarding the actions they took regarding the Vietnam war, an unmitigated disaster from start to miserable finish. And although I served, it forever shaped my view of internationalism, of what it really means to be both an American and a citizen of the world and of the meaning of freedom. In retrospect, our myopia placed us firmly on the wrong side.
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HamletsMill
All Myth is Astronomy
08:58 PM on 04/19/2012
x2. As a fellow veteran friend said to me once "It destroyed everyone. It destroyed those who went and it destroyed those who didn't go.It destroyed everyone on every side of it in that moment in time. One of the great completely mindless follies of human history."

That incredible disaster drove me into the realm of metaphysics in a lifetime search of an explanation.I still don't have very satisfying answers. Not even the Zoroastrian concept of Satan and wars across the Universe can explain something so self destructive and counter productive for a human society. The quest is now driving me into the realm of meta psychology.

"POLITICAL PONEROLOGY (A SCIENCE ON THE NATURE OF EVIL ADJUSTED FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES) "
http://www.amazon.com/Political-Ponerology-Science-Adjusted-Purposes/dp/1897244258

Every thinking person knows the road we are on. It is all going to end very badly in the age of nuclear terrorism.

COUNTDOWN TO ZERO - OFFICIAL TRAILER [HD]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mn-1LuLhrw

We have created two enemies for every one we killed. We are in big trouble. We have learned absolutely nothing as a society.

It will happen.
07:59 AM on 04/19/2012
rip to another war mongering skull and bones psychopath. thank god hes gone. but it wont bring back all the kids he killed in 'nam
07:33 AM on 04/19/2012
'Old soldiers never die'

We go on... somewhere.

Rest In Peace
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
My op
My opinion...
04:07 AM on 04/19/2012
Secretary Resor, thank your for your service. Your family and country has great cause to be proud of you. RIP
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
First Blast
res ad triarios venit
12:52 AM on 04/19/2012
RIP
12:04 AM on 04/19/2012
Rest well brother.
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PRONESE
Somewhat Opinionated Curmudgeon
05:40 AM on 04/19/2012
F & F
More Coffee...
R/ PRONESE
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
kenhamlett
11:52 PM on 04/18/2012
I saw an extraordinary new play on Broadway last night called "The Columnist." It is about the life of columnist Joseph Alsop, one of the strongest voices beating the drum for the war in Vietnam, and a man who continued to boost the war long after it was clear that it was a terrible mistake and doomed to failure. Seeing this article about the Secretary of the Army under President Johnson reminds me again of the play and of those tragic events that cost the lives and health of so many Americans. I wish we had learned more lessons from that tragic involvement, but I do not believe we have. The play stars John Lithgow in a really excellent performance. I recommend it both as absorbing theater and a heartbreaking history lesson.
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HamletsMill
All Myth is Astronomy
12:34 AM on 04/19/2012
Thank you. I am glad to know about this new play. The Vietnam War was truly a tragedy of epic Biblical proportions. We won two terrible World Wars as a nation, then took a loaded gun, put it to our heads, and pulled the trigger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn0yH6i-9ys

In all the years since both then and now we have learned absolutely noting. We have been lead by more Yale graduates who apparently never cracked a history book. That is the way it all happened. Just mind boggling. We are now truly the most suicidal nation on Earth. It did not have to go this way, yet, amazingly, it did. I believe it was the total catastrophic failure of our entire educational system from grade schools all the way up to the highest elite universities. Just appalling beyond words. Will anyone in this country of sheep ever start to get the metaphors of our destruction?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoUT7q2iTbQ
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
kenhamlett
08:49 AM on 04/19/2012
I agree -- what an interesting and self-destructive path we are on, and we seem unable to break away from it ....