Joseph Alsop

Syndicated Washington columnist whose robust opinions appeared in newspapers around the country for five decades. He was a fierce supporter of the United States effort in Vietnam and, in the late 1950's, a champion of the view that the United States was letting the Soviet Union open a dangerous ''missile gap.'' When he retired as a columnist in 1974, his Washington political column was believed to be the longest-running nationally syndicated column of its kind, appearing three times a week in 300 newspapers. Joseph Wright Alsop Jr. was born on Oct. 10, 1910, in Avon, Conn., the son of a prominent Republican who failed several times to win the Connecticut governorship, and the former Corinne Douglas Robinson, who founded the Connecticut League of Republican Women in 1917. Both parents served in the Connecticut General Assembly. Wartime Aide to Chennault He graduated from the Groton School in 1928 and Harvard College in 1932. He was a reporter for The Herald Tribune in New York and in Washington. Mr. Alsop spent much of World War II in Asia as an aide to Gen. Claire L. Chennault of the Flying Tigers. Mr. Alsop married the writer Susan Mary Jay Patten, now known as Susan Mary Alsop, in 1961. They were divorced in 1978. Stewart Alsop died in 1974 of leukemia. Joseph Alsop is survived by a brother, John D. Alsop, a prominent Republican, of Old Lyme, Conn.; a sister, Corinne Alsop Chubb of Chester, N.J.; a stepson, William Patten of Camden, Me.; a stepdaughter, Anne Milliken of Salt Lake City, and seven step-grandchildren.