Haig remembered as soldier and statesman

Published 8:54 pm Saturday, February 20, 2010

WASHINGTON — Soldier and statesman, Alexander Haig never lived down his televised response to the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. Haig died Saturday at age 85 having held high posts in three Republican administrations and some of the U.S. military’s top jobs.

Haig was a four-star Army general who served as a senior adviser to three presidents and had presidential ambitions of his own. He died early in the day at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore of complications from an infection, his family said. He was surrounded by his family, according to two of his children, Alexander and Barbara.

President Barack Obama praised Haig on Saturday as a public servant who “exemplified our finest warrior-diplomat tradition of those who dedicate their lives to public service.”

Haig’s long and decorated military service launched the Washington career for which he is better known, including jobs in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations.

Many Americans will remember the strong-willed Haig most vividly for what he later called his “poor choice of words.” Hours after Reagan was shot, then-Secretary of State Haig went before the cameras intending, he said later, to reassure Americans that the White House was functioning.

“As of now, I am in control here in the White House, pending the return of the vice president,” Haig said.

Some saw the comment as a power grab in the absence of Vice President George H.W. Bush, who was out of town.

The ridicule that followed hastened Haig’s departure from the last of an extraordinarily varied string of top government jobs.

“I think of him as a patriot’s patriot,” said George P. Shultz, who succeeded Haig as the country’s top diplomat in 1982.

“No matter how you sliced him it came out red, white and blue. He was always willing to serve.”

Haig was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and numerous other honors during his three decades in the Army, and — as vice chief of staff — helped lead the transition to an all-volunteer military, recalled Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a Democrat, called the staunchly Republican Haig a great public servant. “Alexander Haig devoted his career to serving our country, both as a soldier and as a diplomat,” Albright said.