Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, former Joint Chiefs chairman, dies at 75

Retired Army Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, who became the first foreign-born chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and guided military and humanitarian efforts in the post-Cold War era of the 1990s, has died. He was 75.

Shalikashvili died Saturday morning at Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington state of complications from a stroke, the Army said in a statement.

A native of Poland, Shalikashvili rose to the top military post at the Pentagon during the Clinton administration, from 1993 to 1997. He succeeded Gen. Colin L. Powell as chairman.

"General Shali," as President Clinton often referred to him, counseled Clinton on the use of troops during conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Haiti, Rwanda and other places. When he appointed Shalikashvili chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 1993, Clinton lauded the general as "a soldier's soldier, a proven warrior, a creative and flexible visionary."...