By AP/KWMU
Washington, DC – A Granite City native who ran West Point and was NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in the early 70s has died.
Gen. Andrew Goodpaster led Army troops in World War II and Vietnam. He oversaw U.S. military operations in Europe in the early 1970s and was called out of retirement to be West Point's superintendent in 1977.
Goodpaster died Monday at the Walter Reed Army Hospital at the age of 90.
He most recently served as a senior fellow at the Eisenhower Institute, a think tank.
After commanding troops in World War II, he was sent to Vietnam in July 1968 as deputy commander of U.S. forces. A year later, he was assigned to NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, where he served as supreme allied commander, Europe, responsible for military operations there and in the Middle East.
Goodpaster retired in December 1974 and became a senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. H e also taught at The Citadel, South Carolina's military college in Charleston.
He was recalled to active duty in June 1977 to become the 51st superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., his alma mater. He had earned a bachelor's degree there in 1939.
He retired again in 1981.
At various points during his career, Goodpaster was a key aide to Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.
He was decorated during his career with the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor; a Distinguished Service Cross; a Purple Heart; a Silver Star; and distinguished service medals from the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Goodpaster is survived by his wife, Dorothy, two daughters and seven grandchildren.