national security adviser, White House Chief of Staff, NATO Commander in Europe, Secretary of State

Alexander Meigs Haig, Jr., was born in Bala Cynwyd (a suburb of Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, on December 2, 1924, the second of Alexander Meigs and Regina Anne (Murphy) Haig's three children. He graduated from Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, in 1942, and went on to the University of Notre Dame. He earned an appointment to the U. S. Military Academy at West Point in 1944, and graduated 214th in his class of 310 in 1947.

During the Korean War, Haig served as an aide to Lieutenant General Alonzo Patrick Fox and to General Edward Almond. His service included participation in four campaigns, including the Battles of Inchon and Chosin Reservoir and the evacuation of Hungnam, during which he earned two Silver Stars and a Bronze Star with Valor device. He was reassigned to stateside service in 1951.Haig earned an Masters Degree from the Columbia University School of Business in 1955, graduated from the Naval War College in 1960, and received a Masters in International Relations from Georgetown University in 1961.In 1962, Haig became a staff officer in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations at the Pentagon. In 1964, he was appointed military assistant to Secretary of the Army Stephen Ailes, and then military assistant to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. He continued in the latter service until the end of 1965, and graduated from the Army War College in 1966.In 1966, Haig took command of a battalion of the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam. During the Battle of Ap Gu, in March 1967, his troops were pinned down by a Viet Cong force that outnumbered U. S. forces three to one. Haig was surveying the battlefield from the air when his helicopter was shot down, after which he and his men had to endure two days of bloody hand-to-hand combat. His actions earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, on May 22. He was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and a Purple Heart, and was promoted to Colonel as Commander of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division.Following his one-year tour in Vietnam, Haig became Deputy Commandant of West Point, under Brigadier General Bernard W. Rogers, in which capacity he served until 1969.

In 1969, Haig became military advisor to Henry Kissinger, President Richard Nixon's National Security Advisor. A year later, he replaced Richard V. Allen as military advisor to the National Security Council staff. In the latter position, Haig assisted South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu in negotiating cease-fire talks in 1972, to end the war in Vietnam.

Promoted to Brigadier General in September 1969 and to Major General in March 1972, Haig became a full General and was named Army Vice Chief of Staff in January 1973. In May 1973, President Nixon asked him to replace H. R. Haldeman as White House Chief of Staff, in which capacity he reportedly played a major role in convincing Nixon to resign in view of the impeding release of potentially incriminating White House tapes. He subsequently played a major role in the transition to Gerald Ford's presidency, and resigned as Chief of Staff on September 21, 1974.

On September 16, 1974, Haig was named by President Gerald Ford to replace retiring General Andrew J. Goodpaster, Jr., as Commander in Chief of U. S. forces in Europe, effective November 1, and as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, effective December 15, placing him in command of all NATO forces. He remained in Europe until retiring from the Army, as a four-star General, on January 3, 1979.

After returning to the United States, Haig became president and director of United Technologies Corporation, positions he held until 1981.

After Ronald Reagan won the 1980 presidential election, he nominated Haig to be his Secretary of State. Despite some opposition in the Senate, he was confirmed, and he took office on January 22, 1981. As Secretary of State, Haig hoped to restore the Department of State to the dominant position in foreign policy-making that it had lost during previous administrations, but he was ultimately unsuccessful. Although he was able to stabilize relations with Communist China while simultaneously continuing arms sales to Taiwan and helped re-orient the focus of U.S. foreign policy back toward the Soviet Union, his attempt to broker peace between the United Kingdom and Argentina during the Falklands War failed, as did his efforts in the Middle East. Frequently overshadowed in foreign policy matters by other members of the administration, Haig resigned as Secretary of State on July 5, 1982. In 1984, he published Caveat: Realism, Reagan, and Foreign Policy.

Asie from a failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, Haig spent the rest of his life in the private sector. His memoirs, Inner Circles: How America Changed The World, were published in 1992. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 20, 2010.

Sources

Biography www.biography.com
New York Times www.nytimes.com

See Also

Pennsylvania
University of Notre Dame
U. S. Military Academy at West Point
Bernard W. Rogers
President Richard Nixon
President Gerald Ford
President Ronald Reagan

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This page was last updated on February 06, 2019.