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A Vietnam veteran, Jones was elevated to the top NATO post of Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in January 2003. The first Marine to hold the job, he brought a particular transatlantic perspective at a time when U.S.-European ties were under severe strain during the build-up to the war in Iraq.
But having spent his formative years in France, the four-star general was said by colleagues to be perfectly at ease with the bilingual culture of the Brussels-based alliance.
In previous posts, Jones was senior aide to then U.S. defense secretary William Cohen in the Bill Clinton administration, and maintained strong political contacts after serving as the Marines Senate liaison officer.
His role has been assisting the Palestinians to "better design a security concept" for the future country they want to create, Rice said when he was nominated.
"Any lasting peace must be built on solid foundations of security. Israelis must be confident that a Palestinian state will increase their security, not detract from it."
He began his retirement by leading the Institute for 21st Century Energy set up by the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce, examining ways of safeguarding clean energy supplies while ensuring national security.
"Thirty-three years later, as commander of NATO, I worried early in the mornings about how to protect energy facilities and supply chain routes as far away as Africa, the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea," he said.
"Jones ... knows all the pieces," said veteran political journalist Bob Woodward, longtime Washington chronicler, who noted that the former Marine was an early and vocal critic of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"He's respected not just here, but he was an extremely popular NATO commander with the Europeans, which is actually a rare feat," he said, also speaking on CBS.