Always
the misunderstood hero and patriot, a student of MacArthur (where he
probably learned his showmanship) and a disciple of Henry Kissinger,
Al Haig died today at age 85. Haig, who was a clerk for General
MacArthur, a Viet Nam war hero and the man who made sure that Richard
Nixon would not try to usurp executive powers during Watergate, is
probably best known and misunderstood for his role during the Reagan
assassination attempt in 1981. When Reagan was shot and unconscious
in the hospital, then Vice President Bush was in Texas and could not
be reached. This was the height of the cold war, when the Russians
may see a distracted United States as an easy target. In fact, I
believe that if Haig had not made his famous "I'm in charge,
here" speech to the press, coupled with Secertary of Defense
Caspar Weinberger's decision to put our military on high alert (which
the Soviets knew had happened), that the Russians would have
attempted some sort of attack somewhere in the world, most likely
Poland. Haig's statement was to tell the Russians, try
something, and I am willing to make a military decision. The Russians
feared Haig's military style. The ironic aspect of this entire
scenario is that Haig probably averted a major conflict, and went to
his grave being ridiculed for it, by his distractor who never had the
foresight to understand the cold war in the first place. In his book,
"Caveat," Haig later wrote that he had been "guilty of
a poor choice of words and optimistic if I had imagined I would be
forgiven the imprecision out of respect for the tragedy of the
occasion."
Haig,
who became a four-star general and served as a top adviser to three
presidents and had presidential ambitions of his own, died Saturday
of complications from an infection, his family said. Haig's long and
decorated military career launched the Washington career for which he
is better known, including top posts in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan
administrations. He never lived down his televised response to the
1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
Haig
died at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he was surrounded
by his family, according to two of his children, Alexander and
Barbara. A hospital spokesman, Gary Stephenson, said Haig died at
about 1:30 a.m.
Born
Dec. 2, 1924, in the Philadelphia suburb of Bala Cynwyd, Alexander
Meigs Haig spent his boyhood days dreaming about a career in the
military. With the help of an uncle who had congressional contacts,
he secured an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point
in 1943. After seeing combat in Korea and Vietnam, Haig - an
Army colonel at the time - was tapped by Henry Kissinger to be his
military adviser on the National Security Council under Nixon. Haig
"soon became indispensable," Kissinger later said of his
protege. Nixon promoted Haig in 1972 from a two-star general to a
four-star rank, passing over 240 high-ranking officers with greater
seniority. During the Watergate scandal, Nixon appointed Haig to
replace H.R. Haldeman as White House chief of staff.
After
Watergate, for years, many thought he was "Deep Throat" to
Woodward and Bernstein, famous for breaking the scandal for the
Washington Post, but it turned out that he was not. In my opinion,
there never was a Deep Throat, although Woodward named a person,
after his death.
When
Reagan won the presidency in 1980, Haig returned to public service as
the secretary of state, and declared himself the "vicar of
American foreign policy." He lasted for only 17 months--
leaving office because of turf wars with other top administration
officials - including Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and
national security adviser William Clark. In his book, Haig said he
had concluded during a 1982 trip to Europe with the president that
the "effort to write my character out of the script was under
way with a vengeance." He resigned days later.
He
ran for president in 1980, but dropped out of the race early. On the
campaign trail, he told supporters about his desire to "keep the
Reagan revolution alive," but he also railed against the
administration's bulging federal deficit - calling it an
embarrassment to the
GOP.He turned out to be right!
Haig
is survived by his wife of 60 years, Patricia; his children
Alexander, Brian and Barbara; eight grandchildren; and his brother,
the Rev. Francis R. Haig.
The Washington Post was used for some source material