Senate Confirms Joint Chiefs Nominee

The Senate unanimously confirmed Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Shelton, a 55-year-old Green Beret paratrooper who led U.S. forces in Haiti, replaces Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, who will retire at the end of this month. He will be the third Army general in a row to fill a job that has traditionally rotated among the military services. At his nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month, Shelton said he supported President Clinton’s plan to remove troops from Bosnia in mid-1998. However, committee members expressed concern about the lack of an explicit strategy for removing U.S. military peacekeepers from the troubled country.