Andrew J. Goodpaster

Army Gen. Andrew J. Goodpaster, the self-effacing presidential adviser and commander of NATO who was summoned from retirement to lead the scandal-tainted U.S. Military Academy at West Point, died Monday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He had prostate cancer. He was 90.

Gen. Goodpaster spent more than four decades as a soldier, scholar and statesman. He saw combat in World War II, was deputy commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam and served four presidents.

Having retired as commander of NATO forces in 1974, he returned to active service in 1977 to become the 51st commandant of West Point, his alma mater. The school had been pummeled by a cheating scandal in which 152 cadets were dismissed, and it had admitted its first class of women to some controversy.

With his avuncular looks and measured manner, Gen. Goodpaster was said to have helped rebuild the academy ' s reputation by his mere presence after the cheating episode. He also eased the women ' s transition to the school, telling staff members he would " escort them to the door with a handshake " should they fail to make the women feel welcome.

He stepped down in 1981 and three years later received the Medal of Freedom, the nation ' s highest civilian honor.

Andrew Jackson Goodpaster Jr. was born Feb. 12, 1915, in Granite City, Ill., where his father worked for the railroad. Hoping to pursue a career as a math teacher, he enrolled at McKendree College in Lebanon, Ill., but he withdrew during the Depression when money was scant. To continue his education, he sought a West Point appointment and entered the Class of 1939.

During World War II, he led an engineering battalion over a minefield and under hostile fire, actions for which he received the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest military award for valor after the Medal of Honor. His other decorations included the Silver Star, two awards of the Legion of Merit and two awards of the Purple Heart.

After doing war planning for the general staff in Washington, he entered Princeton University, where he received a master ' s degree in engineering as well as a master ' s degree and a doctorate in international relations.

His battlefield and academic credentials, along with a regard for anonymity, impressed a number of ranking officials. He became special assistant to the chief of staff of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe from 1950 to 1954 and a favorite of Dwight Eisenhower, the NATO commander. He assisted Eisenhower in forming political and military guidelines for the new treaty organization and was Eisenhower ' s liaison among such diplomats and politicians as W. Averell Harriman of the United States, Jean Monnet of France and Hugh Gaitskell of the United Kingdom.

Later, President Eisenhower asked Gen. Goodpaster to serve as staff secretary in the White House. He became known as the president ' s alter ego for his ability to carry out orders in his wide-ranging national security portfolio with minimal need for instruction. Among his mandate was work on the so-called Solarium Conference to plan for the American role in a post-Stalin Soviet Union.

Some called him " the man with the briefcase " for his silent but essential backstage role in practically all military matters. Gen. Goodpaster, wrote one reporter for the New York Herald Tribune, " looks like a business executive and hides his White House importance behind a quiet facade that lends itself neither to anecdotes nor stuffiness. "

He remained a key adviser through the 1956 Suez crisis, the 1957 launching of Sputnik and the 1960 Soviet downing of the U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers.

In the 1960s, Gen. Goodpaster advanced through a series of sensitive positions on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Johnson used him as an intermediary with Eisenhower for military suggestions in the escalating Vietnam War.

" President Johnson asked the question: Can we win in Vietnam and what do we have to do? " Gen. Goodpaster told U.S. News & World Report decades later. " That question came to me. "

He advocated a stronger military role to win the war and became frustrated that the political will never materialized. He served as military adviser to the six-man U.S. team involved in the Paris peace talks with the North Vietnamese in summer 1968 and spent the rest of the year as deputy to Gen. Creighton W. Abrams Jr., commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam.

From 1969 to 1974, he was NATO supreme allied commander and was said to have been greatly displeased when Alexander M. Haig Jr., the Nixon White House chief of staff, was tapped to replace him. He retired quietly and did not show up for Haig ' s ceremony, a rare public snub.

In later years, Gen. Goodpaster took special assignments from presidents and held a variety of academic and research center appointments. Otherwise, he allowed himself the luxury of salmon fishing in Labrador with his wife, whom he had courted at a time when her father was West Point ' s No. 2 official and he a cadet.

Survivors include his wife of 65 years; two daughters; seven grandchildren; and a great-grandson.