The Aid Who Aided

Not in many years had Army Major General Chester V. Clifton Jr. commanded troops or made a military policy decision. Yet last week, in a White House ceremony, the President of the U.S. said of Clifton: "His influence--at least upon me--has been of the greatest value and, I think, the greatest worth to his country." The President then awarded the Distinguished Service Medal to "Ted" Clifton, military aide to both Johnson and Kennedy, who was retiring from the Army at 51 to become executive vice president of Manhattan's Thomas J. Deegan Co. Inc., a public relations firm.

A West Pointer ('36), Clifton took leave shortly after graduation, worked as a cub reporter for the New York Herald Tribune. He decided to become a career newsman, was on his way to Army headquarters in New York with his resignation when he saw a military parade on Fifth Avenue led by an old West Point friend. Clifton tore up the resignation, stayed in the Army for 29 more years. In Italy, during World War II, Artilleryman Clifton's huge 240-mm. howitzers plastered Cassino with 250,000 shells in 120 days, and Clifton won the Legion of Merit for knocking out Cassino's main supply bridge, which had survived 1,200 air sorties. After the war, Clifton turned to Army public relations, was a top aide for Chief of Staff General Omar Bradley.

Late in 1960, a mutual friend introduced Clifton to President-elect John Kennedy, and the two talked for 45 minutes. At the end of the session, Kennedy said: "We may be seeing more of each other." The day before Kennedy's inauguration, he named Clifton to be his military aide.

In that job, Clifton handled security papers coming into the White House, gave Kennedy and Johnson their daily intelligence briefings, acted as liaison man with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in charge of the "football" (the code bag required by the President if he were to order a nuclear attack), and in scores of other ways ably served two Presidents. His successor: Air Force Major James U. Cross, 40.

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