Gen. Paul X. Kelley, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who rose to become commandant of the Marine Corps from 1983 to 1987 and endured the devastating bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 service members in 1983, died on Sunday at a care facility in McLean, Va. He was 91.

His wife, Barbara Kelley, said the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

At a time when the nation’s military was rebuilding both equipment and morale, a decade after the Vietnam War, General Kelley, regarded as politically adept and well connected, was trusted by President Ronald Reagan’s inner circle. But the bombing hurt him deeply.

The Marine Corps that he led was also embarrassed by the role played by Lt. Col. Oliver North in the Iran-contra affair and by an espionage scandal involving elite guards at diplomatic outposts in the Soviet Union.

On his path to becoming the 28th commandant of the corps, when he was a three-star lieutenant general, General Kelley became the first commander of the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force in 1979. It was a novel command, comprising elements of each military service, that marked a new readiness to intervene militarily in the Persian Gulf and nearby regions.