General Alexander Haig, Former Secretary Of State, Dies At 85
He died about 1:30 a.m. yesterday at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, hospital spokeswoman Maryalice Yakutchik said in a telephone interview. The cause of death was complications associated with an infection, the Associated Press said, citing the Haig family.
Haig straddled the worlds of politics and the military during almost two decades in posts that included supreme commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. His 18- month tenure as Reagans first secretary of state, the pinnacle of his political career, was marred by turf battles and by the “in control” comment he could never live down.
He uttered it on March 30, 1981, hours after John Hinckley Jr. shot and wounded Reagan outside a Washington hotel. As surgeons worked to save Reagans life at a nearby hospital, and with Vice President George H.W. Bush in flight to Washington from Texas, Haig huddled with other top officials at the White House, then went before reporters.
“Constitutionally, gentlemen,” he told the press, “you have the president, the vice president and the secretary of state, in that order, and should the president decide he wants to transfer the helm, he will do so.” He went on, “as of now, I am in control here in the White House, pending the return of the vice president and in close touch with him.”
Fourth in Line
In fact, under the rules of presidential succession, Haig wasnt in control. The secretary of state is fourth in line to the presidency, behind the vice president, speaker of the House and president pro tempore of the Senate.
His comment gave Haig a lasting image as a power-grabber. “It was reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove,” Richard Darman, Reagans deputy chief of staff, wrote in his memoir. “Haig intended to calm the nation. He unnerved the world.”
Haig had “lost control” and “written his own political epitaph,” Larry Speakes, Reagans spokesman, recalled in his memoir. “From then on, other members of the Reagan team would be viewing him with suspicion, and within 15 months their hazing would drive him out of the White House.”
For his part, Haig long defended his comment as merely “a statement of fact that I was the senior Cabinet officer present.”
The Vicar
During his term as secretary of state, Haig called himself the “vicar of American foreign policy” and reportedly chafed when others — even Reagan — took steps without his approval. In one instance, White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III rebuked Haig for remarks on Central America that diverted attention from the administrations planned message about the economy.
In April 1981, while convalescing from his gunshot wound, Reagan penned a handwritten note to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, extolling the importance of peace. Haig tried without success to persuade Reagan to sharpen the letters tone. Haigs tenure was “doomed from that moment,” according to Reagan biographer Lou Cannon.
Reagans Limits
“Al really did not understand how much Reagan intended to be his own president,” Cannon said in a 2008 interview. “Reagan delegated a ton of stuff, arguably more than he should have, but he considered the U.S.-Soviet relationship the most important thing on his plate, and he was never about to delegate that.”
Haig resigned in June 1982 and presented his side of the story in a 1984 book, “Caveat: Realism, Reagan and Foreign Policy.” The Reagan White House was “an administration of chums,” he wrote, and his status as an outsider was a “handicap.”
He said he was unjustly blamed for failing to forge a diplomatic solution to avert the Falklands War between Argentina and the U.K. He also denied longstanding allegations that he gave Israel a green light to invade Lebanon in 1982.
Haig became a presidential candidate himself in 1987, joining a Republican field that included Bush, the sitting vice president. He dropped out on Feb. 12, 1988, four days before the New Hampshire primary, and endorsed Senator Robert Dole, who went on to lose the nomination to Bush.
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