Alexander Haig

As a young officer, Haig served as an aide to Lieutenant General Alonzo Patrick Fox, a deputy chief of staff to General Douglas MacArthur. In 1950 Haig married Fox's daughter, Patricia.[7] In the early days of the Korean War, Haig was responsible for maintaining General MacArthur's situation map and briefing MacArthur each evening on the day's battlefield events.[10] Haig later served (1950–51) with the X Corps, as aide to MacArthur's chief of staff, General Edward Almond,[2] who awarded Haig two Silver Stars and a Bronze Star with Valor device.[11] Haig participated in four Korean War campaigns, including the Battle of Inchon, the Battle of Chosin Reservoir and the evacuation of Hŭngnam,[10] as Almond's aide.

Haig served as a staff officer in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations at the Pentagon (1962–64), and then was appointed military assistant to Secretary of the Army Stephen Ailes in 1964. He then was appointed military assistant to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, continuing in that service until the end of 1965.[7] In 1966, Haig graduated from the United States Army War College.

Major General Alexander Haig being presented with the Distinguished Service Medal by President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office, January 4, 1973

In 1966 Haig took command of a battalion of the 1st Infantry Division during the Vietnam War. On May 22, 1967, Lieutenant Colonel Haig was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. Army's second highest medal for valor, by General William Westmoreland as a result of his actions during the Battle of Ap Gu in March 1967.[12] During the battle, Haig's troops (of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment) became pinned down by a Viet Cong force that outnumbered U.S. forces by three to one. In an attempt to survey the battlefield, Haig boarded a helicopter and flew to the point of contact. His helicopter was subsequently shot down. Two days of bloody hand-to-hand combat ensued. An excerpt from Haig's official Army citation follows:

When two of his companies were engaged by a large hostile force, Colonel Haig landed amid a hail of fire, personally took charge of the units, called for artillery and air fire support and succeeded in soundly defeating the insurgent force ... the next day a barrage of 400 rounds was fired by the Viet Cong, but it was ineffective because of the warning and preparations by Colonel Haig. As the barrage subsided, a force three times larger than his began a series of human wave assaults on the camp. Heedless of the danger himself, Colonel Haig repeatedly braved intense hostile fire to survey the battlefield. His personal courage and determination, and his skillful employment of every defense and support tactic possible, inspired his men to fight with previously unimagined power. Although his force was outnumbered three to one, Colonel Haig succeeded in inflicting 592 casualties on the Viet Cong ... HQ US Army, Vietnam, General Orders No. 2318 (May 22, 1967)[13]

Haig was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart during his tour in Vietnam[12] and was eventually promoted to colonel as commander of 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam.

Following his one-year Vietnam tour, Haig returned to the United States to become regimental commander of the Third Regiment of the Corps of Cadets at West Point under the newly appointed commandant, Brigadier General Bernard W. Rogers. Both had previously served together in the 1st Infantry Division, Rogers as assistant division commander and Haig as brigade commander.

Haig (far right) is seen meeting with (left to right) Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, President Richard Nixon and Representative Gerald Ford (R-MI) on October 13, 1973, regarding Ford's upcoming appointment as vice president

After only four months as VCSA, Haig returned to the Nixon administration at the height of the Watergate affair as White House chief of staff in May 1973. Retaining his Army commission, he remained in the position until September 21, 1974, ultimately overseeing the transition to the presidency of Gerald Ford following Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974.

Haig has been largely credited with keeping the government running while President Nixon was preoccupied with Watergate[1] and was essentially seen as the "acting president" during Nixon's last few months in office.[7] During July and early August 1974, Haig played an instrumental role in finally persuading Nixon to resign. Haig presented several pardon options to Ford a few days before Nixon eventually resigned. In this regard, in his 1999 book Shadow, author Bob Woodward describes Haig's role as the point man between Nixon and Ford during the final days of Nixon's presidency. According to Woodward, Haig played a major behind-the-scenes role in the delicate negotiations of the transfer of power from President Nixon to President Ford.[17] Indeed, about one month after taking office, Ford did pardon Nixon, resulting in much controversy.

General Alexander Haig at his White House offices while still wearing his U.S. Army uniform, upon assuming the White House Chief of Staff position on May 4, 1973

However, Haig denied the allegation that he played a key role in arbitrating Nixon's resignation by offering Ford's pardon to Nixon. One of the most crucial moments occurred a day before Haig's departure to Europe to begin his tenure as NATO Supreme Allied Commander. Haig was telephoned by J. Fred Buzhardt who once served as special White House counsel for Watergate matters.[18][19] In the call, Buzhardt discussed with Haig President Ford's upcoming speech to address the nation about pardoning former president Richard Nixon, informing Haig that the speech contained something indicating Haig's role in Nixon's resignation and Ford's pardon of Nixon. According to his autobiography (Inner Circles: How America Changed the World), Haig was furious and immediately drove straight to the White House to determine the veracity of Buzhardt's claims. This was due to his concern that Ford's speech would expose his role in negotiating Nixon's resignation supposedly in exchange for a pardon issued by the newly sworn in president.[18][19]

On August 7, 1974, two days before Nixon's resignation, Haig met with Nixon in the Oval Office to discuss the transition. Following their conversation, Nixon told Haig "You fellows, in your business, have a way of handling problems like this. Give them a pistol and leave the room. I don't have a pistol, Al."[20]

Following Nixon's resignation, Haig remained briefly as White House Chief of Staff under President Ford. Haig aided in the transition by advising the new president mostly on policy matters on which he had been working under the Nixon presidency and introducing Ford to the White House staff and their daily activities. Haig recommended that Ford retain several of Nixon's White House staff for 30 days to provide an orderly transition from the old administration to the new. Haig and Kissinger also advised President Ford on Nixon's détente policy with the Soviet Union following the SALT I treaty in 1972.

Haig found it difficult to get along with the new administration and wanted to return to the Army for his last command. It had also been rumored that Ford wanted to be his own chief of staff. At first Ford decided to replace Haig with Robert T. Hartmann, Ford's chief of staff during his tenure as vice president.[19][18][21] Ford soon replaced Hartmann with United States Permanent Ambassador to NATO Donald Rumsfeld. Author and Haig biographer Roger Morris, a former colleague of Haig's on the National Security Council early in Nixon's first term, wrote that when Ford pardoned Nixon, he in effect pardoned Haig as well.[22]

Haig resigned from his position as White House Chief of Staff and returned to active-duty in the United States Army in September 1974.[18]

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  Alexander Haig official portrait as White House Chief of Staff.
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  General Haig with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and his assistant Major George Joulwan (seated, corner left) at Haig's office in the White House, August 8, 1974.
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  A meeting of Nixon Administration economic advisors and cabinet members on May 7, 1974. Clockwise from Richard Nixon: George P. Shultz, James T. Lynn, Alexander Haig, Roy Ash, Herbert Stein and William E. Simon.
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  Haig with President Gerald Ford shortly after Ford assuming the Presidency at the Oval Office, White House on September 1974.

On December 11, 1980, president-elect Reagan was prepared to publicly announce nearly all of his candidates for the most important cabinet-level posts. Singularly absent from the list of top nominees was his choice for Secretary of State, presumed by many at the time to be Al Haig. Haig's prospects for Senate confirmation were clouded when Senate Democrats questioned his role in the Watergate scandal. In Haig's defense, North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms claimed to have phoned former president Nixon personally to inquire whether any material on Nixon's unreleased White House tapes could embarrass Haig. According to Helms, Nixon replied, "Not a thing."[27] Haig was eventually confirmed after hearings he described as an "ordeal," during which he received no encouragement from Reagan or his staff.[28]

Haig (seated, left) with President Ronald Reagan, Vice President George H. W. Bush and the rest of President Reagan's cabinet members in the Oval Office, January 28, 1981

United States Secretary of State General Alexander Haig welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Andrews Air Force Base.

Several days earlier, on December 2, 1980, as Haig faced these initial challenges to the next step in his political career, four U.S. Catholic missionary women in El Salvador, two of whom were Maryknoll sisters, were beaten, raped and murdered by five Salvadoran national guardsmen ordered to follow them. Their bodies were exhumed from a remote shallow grave two days later in the presence of then-U.S. ambassador to El Salvador Robert E. White. Despite this diplomatically awkward atrocity, the Carter administration soon approved $5.9 million in lethal military assistance to El Salvador's oppressive right-wing government.[29] The incoming Reagan administration expanded that aid to $25 million less than six weeks later.[30]

In justifying the arms shipments, the new administration claimed that the Salvadoran government of Jose Napoleon Duarte had taken "positive steps" to investigate the murder of four American nuns, but this was disputed by U.S. Ambassador Robert E. White, who said that he could find no evidence the junta was "conducting a serious investigation." White was dismissed from the Foreign Service by Haig because of his complaints. White later asserted that the Reagan administration was determined to ignore and even conceal the complicity of the Salvadoran government and army in the murders.[31]

Throughout the 1980 U.S. presidential campaign, Reagan and his foreign policy advisers faulted the Carter administration's perceived over-emphasis on the human rights abuses committed by authoritarian governments allied to the U.S., labeling it a "double standard" when compared with Carter's treatment of communist-bloc governments. Haig, who described himself as the "vicar" of U.S. foreign policy,[32] believed the human rights violations of a U.S. ally such as El Salvador should be given less attention than the ally's successes against enemies of the U.S., and thus found himself diminishing the murders of the nuns before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in March 1981:

I'd like to suggest to you that some of the investigations would lead one to believe that perhaps the vehicle the nuns were riding in may have tried to run through a roadblock, or may have accidentally been perceived to have been doing so, and there may have been an exchange of fire, and then perhaps those who inflicted the casualties sought to cover it up.

— Alexander Haig, Alexander Haig, House Foreign Affairs committee testimony, quoted by UPI, March 19, 1981[33]

The outcry that immediately followed Haig's insinuation prompted him to emphatically withdraw his speculative suggestions the very next day before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.[34] Similar public relations miscalculations, by Haig and others, continued to plague the Reagan administration's attempts to build popular support at home for its Central American policies.

Haig speaks to the press after the attempted assassination on President Ronald Reagan

In 1981, following the March 30 assassination attempt on Reagan, Haig asserted before reporters, "I am in control here"[35] as a result of Reagan's hospitalization, indicating that, while President Reagan had not "transfer[red] the helm," Haig was in fact directing White House crisis management until Vice President George Bush arrived in Washington to assume that role.

Constitutionally, gentlemen, 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 to the vice president, he will do so. He has not done that. As of now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending return of the vice president and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course.

— Alexander Haig, "Alexander Haig", autobiographical profile in Time magazine, April 2, 1984[36]

The U.S. Constitution, including both the presidential line of succession and the 25th Amendment, dictates what happens when a president is incapacitated. The Speaker of the House (at the time, Tip O'Neill, Democrat) and the president pro tempore of the Senate (at the time, Strom Thurmond, Republican), precede the secretary of state in the line of succession. Haig later clarified,

I wasn't talking about transition. I was talking about the executive branch, who is running the government. That was the question asked. It was not, "Who is in line should the president die?"

— Alexander Haig, "Alexander Haig" interview with 60 Minutes II April 23, 2001

Haig as Secretary of State with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at Andrews Air Force Base in 1982

In April 1982 Haig conducted shuttle diplomacy between the governments of Argentina in Buenos Aires and the United Kingdom in London after Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. Negotiations collapsed and Haig returned to Washington on April 19. The British Naval fleet then entered the war zone. In December 2012 documents released under the United Kingdom's 30 Year Rule disclosed that Haig planned to reveal British classified military information to Argentina in advance of the recapture of South Georgia Island. The information, which contained the plans for Operation Paraquet, was intended to show the Argentine military junta in Buenos Aires that the United States was a neutral player and could be trusted to act impartially during negotiations to end the conflict.[37] However, in 2012 it was revealed via declassified files from the Reagan Presidential Library that Haig attempted to persuade Reagan to side with Argentina in the war.[38]

Secretary of State Alexander Haig accompanying President Ronald Reagan during a meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and British Foreign Minister Francis Pym at 10 Downing Street, June 8, 1982

Haig's report to Reagan on January 30, 1982, shows that Haig feared the Israelis might start a war against Lebanon.[39] Critics accused Haig of "greenlighting" the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. Haig denied this and said he urged restraint.[40]

Haig caused some alarm with his suggestion that a "nuclear warning shot" in Europe might be effective in deterring the Soviet Union.[41] His tenure as secretary of state was often characterized by his clashes with the defense secretary, Caspar Weinberger. Haig, who repeatedly had difficulty with various members of the Reagan administration during his year-and-a-half in office, decided to resign his post on June 25, 1982.[42] President Reagan accepted his resignation on July 5.[43] Haig was succeeded by George P. Shultz, who was confirmed on July 16.[44]

1976, Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[62]

2009, General and Mrs. Haig were recognized for their generous gift in support of academic programs at West Point by being inducted into the Eisenhower Society for Lifetime Giving.[63]