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
Official portrait of Haig as White House chief of staff
Haig as SACEUR
Haig speaks to the press after the attempted assassination on President Ronald Reagan
Haig as Secretary of State with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1982
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Alexander Haig was born in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, the middle of three children of Alexander Meigs Haig Sr., a Republican lawyer, and his wife Regina Anne. When Haig was 10, his father, aged 38, died of cancer. His Irish-American mother raised her children in the Roman Catholic faith.
Haig attended Saint Joseph's Preparatory School in North Philadelphia. He studied at Notre Dame from 1942 to 1944, then transferred to West Point, and graduated from West Point in 1947.
Haig later earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia Business School in 1955 and a Master of Arts degree in international relations from Georgetown University in 1961. His thesis examined the role of military officers in making national policy.
During the Korean War, Haig was an aide-de-camp. He then served as tank commander at Fort Knox and in staff positions in the United States and Europe. Posted to the Pentagon in 1961, he became a protégéprotege of Joseph Califano, the Army's general counsel, who helped him get a choice assignment in the office of Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus R. Vance. After six months in Vietnam in 1966, Haig joined the staff at West Point.
In 1969, on Califano's recommendation, Henry Kissinger brought Haig to the White House to be his military aide and later chief deputy on the National Security Council (NSC). While serving Kissinger, Haig opened a separate line of communication to the President. This relationship paid off in 1973 when Nixon promoted Haig over 240 higher-ranking officers to become vice-chief of staff of the Army. In four years Haig had moved from colonel to four-star general. He used his new position to persuade Nixon to take harsher steps in Vietnam than Kissinger advocated. In May 1973, Nixon appointed Haig chief of the White House staff. In the last days of the Nixon regime, Haig is reputed to have been the de facto president. He was instrumental in persuading Nixon to resign. During his five years in the White House, Haig became a controversial figure, involved to some degree in the NSC's wiretapping operations, in conspiring to overthrow the Allende government in Chile, and in planning the secret bombing of Cambodia.
Haig was Supreme Allied (NATO) Commander in Europe from 1974 to 1979, when he retired from the Army and became president of United Technologies, the nation's third largest defense contractor.
In January 1981 Haig became Reagan's secretary of state. In that post he is believed to have favored close ties to Western Europe and to Israel. But he never felt he was given full authority as foreign policy spokesman. He frequently threatened to resign. On June 25, 1982, Reagan asked for his resignation.
Quotations:
Practice rather than preach. Make of your life an affirmation, defined by your ideals, not the negation of others. Dare to the level of your capability then go beyond to a higher level.
Let them march all they want, as long as they continue to pay their taxes.
I am in control here, in the White House.
A durable, long-term U.S.-China strategic relationship is even more important now than in previous decades. The relationship will continue to grow and prosper to the mutual benefit of all peoples.
The world awaits Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Olympics, an occasion which will bring into the global spotlight the dramatic advances China is making in enhancing the quality of life for its people.
I started out as a Cold Warrior, even my last years in grade school.
Alexander Haig was married to Patricia (née Fox), with whom he had three children: Alexander Patrick Haig, Barbara Haig, and Brian Haig.
Frank Rawle Haig (born September 11, 1928) is an American Jesuit and physics professor. Haig served as the third President of Wheeling Jesuit University from 1966 to 1972 and the seventh President of LeMoyne College from 1981 until 1987.
Mrs. Regina Meredith was a practicing attorney licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and was a co-founding partner of the firm Meredith, Chase and Taggart, located in Princeton and Trenton, New Jersey. She died in 2008.
