Alexander Haig, Ex-Secretary of State, Dies

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Alexander M. Haig Jr., the four-star general who served as a secretary of state under
President Ronald Reagan, and as White House chief of staff under President Richard M. Nixon, after being admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital on January 28, has died. He was 85.

Haig served under the Ronald Reagan Administration for 17 months before the president dismissed him on June 24, 1982. Immediately after his departure came the deaths of 241 American soldiers in a terrorist bombing in Beirut and, two days later, the American invasion of Grenada.

Alexander Haig served in the Korean War, and then sat behind a desk for a decade. He served in the Pentagon, and became a deputy special assistant to Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. His wartime service recommenced when he served in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967 as a battalion and brigade commander of the First Infantry Division, and received the Distinguished Service Cross.

Haig became a military assistant on Mr. Kissinger’s National Security Council staff in 1969, distinguishing himself as the hardest-working man among an ambitious and talented group. He became a brigadier general shortly after, elevating him to the position of Mr. Kissinger’s deputy.

When Watergate broke General Haig was summoned back to serve as the White House chief of staff, in 1973.

After leaving the White House in October 1974, he became Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, the overseer of NATO. In 1979, he resigned and retired from the Army.

Though he considered running for president in 1980, Haig's run never got off the ground. He again attempted the run for president in 1988, placing last among the six Republican candidates in Iowa. He withdrew before the New Hampshire primary.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Alexander Haig, Ex-U.S. Secretary of State, Dies at 85 - New York Times