Jack Brennan

Brennan was born on August 16, 1937, in Fall River, Massachusetts, and attended Providence College, a Catholic college in Providence, Rhode Island, where he graduated in 1959. He served with the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, where he earned a Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart Medal at the Battle of Khe Sanh.\n', '

In 1969, then-Major Brennan was appointed as a Marine Corps Aide to President Nixon; during that time he rose to Colonel. During his time as Marine Corps Aide, Brennan accompanied Nixon on his historic trip to China in 1972, which opened up the country to the United States; he was the first Marine to set foot in the People\'s Republic of China, and he met Mao Zedong. \n', 'He made a positive impression on Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, who described Brennan as having "machismo." In addition, he met Pope Paul VI; he later said that, as a Cathol…