What is John Tower?
[[File:John Tower.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Tower in 1987]] '''John Goodwin Tower''' (September 29, 1925 – April 5, 1991) was an [[Americans|American]] politician. He was the first [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[United States Senate|United States senator]] from [[Texas]] since [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]]. He served from 1961 until his retirement on January 3, 1985, after which time he was appointed as the chairman of the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]]-appointed [[Tower Commission]] that investigated the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]. He was [[George Herbert Walker Bush]]'s nominee for [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] in 1989 but was rejected by the Senate, 53&ndash;47. On April 5, 1991, Tower and his middle daughter, Marian, and the [[astronaut]] [[Sonny Carter]] were killed along with twenty other people in the crash of [[Atlantic Southeast Airlines]] [[Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311|Flight 2311]]. ==Other websites== *[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ftoss Handbook of Texas article on John Tower] *[http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/oralhistory.hom/Tower/Tower.asp Oral History Interviews with John Tower, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library] {{Webarchive|url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20011116140659/http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/oralhistory.hom/tower/tower.asp |date=2001-11-16 }} *{{Find a Grave|8812|accessdate=2008-02-08}} * Southwestern University and SMU's [http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/all/cul/tow John G. Tower Digital Media Collection] contains [http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/tow videos and audios] by John Tower throughout his career. *[http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/18639-1/Roger+Gittines.aspx ''Booknotes'' interview with Roger Gittines on ''Consequences: John G. Tower, A Personal and Political Memoir'', June 30, 1991.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120161410/http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/18639-1/Roger+Gittines.aspx |date=N