Former US Secretary of State Haig Dead at 85
VOA News 20 February 2010
Former U.S. Secretary of State, retired four-star Army general and one-time presidential candidate Alexander Haig has died. He was 85.
Family members say Haig died Saturday at a hospital in the eastern city of Baltimore. His death was attributed to complications from an infection.
In a written statement, President Barack Obama called Haig a great American who served his country with distinction.
Haig served three of Mr. Obama's predecessors - Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
After a military career that included service in the Korean war and Vietnam, Haig joined the Nixon White House in 1970 as an adviser on the National Security Council. Eventually, he became Mr. Nixon's White House chief of staff.
Haig served briefly in the Ford administration before becoming the allied commander of NATO forces in Europe. In 1981, he returned to Washington where he served as President Reagan's secretary of state for a year.
In 1988, Haig ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Party nomination for president.
He is perhaps best-known for a remark made while serving as secretary of state under President Reagan in 1981.
When the president was hospitalized after an assassination attempt, Haig went on national television and said he was in control, a remark that appeared to overstep the constitutional line of succession. He later wrote that he was guilty of a "poor choice of words."
The U.S. Constitution mandates a line of succession from the president, to the vice president, to the speaker of the House of Representatives, to the senior U.S. senator of the party in power, and then to the secretary of state.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement saying she was deeply saddened to hear of Haig's passing.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
