Helms Foreign Policy Adviser John Carbaugh, 60

John Edward Carbaugh Jr., an Oakton resident, was born in Greenville, S.C., on Sept. 4, 1945. He was a 1967 graduate of Sewanee -- the University of the South in Tennessee and a 1973 graduate of the University of South Carolina law school. Early on, he was an aide to Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.).

After joining Helms's staff, Mr. Carbaugh worked to oppose the Panama Canal and strategic arms limitation treaties. He encouraged Helms to hold up executive-branch nominations of those whose political convictions both men questioned as insufficiently conservative.

Mr. Carbaugh was part of the Reagan transition team at the State Department. Although he sought a prominent diplomatic posting, Secretary of State Alexander Haig offered him the American ambassadorship in Paraguay.

"I am deeply honored," he said he told Haig, "but I can serve the country better on Capitol Hill than in Paraguay."

Although Mr. Carbaugh could be condescending toward those who veered from his political beliefs, many found him an amusing meal companion. He enjoyed blunt debate with such liberal columnists as Mary McGrory, and he found Jack Anderson useful at times for leaks.

"This town is full of vaulting egos," Mr. Carbaugh once told The Washington Post. "It takes a certain amount of self-confidence to live here. Anyway, if I'm just 10 percent as effective as my critics claim I am, I'm happy."

His marriage to Carol Ligon Carbaugh ended in divorce.

Survivors include his second wife, Mary Calhoun Carbaugh, whom he married in 1990, of Oakton; two children from his first marriage, John Carbaugh III of Alexandria and Martha Murray of Great Falls; two children from his second marriage, Charlotte "Leacy" Carbaugh and Mary "Miller" Carbaugh, both of Oakton; and three brothers.