Posted on 02/19/2010 1:15:31 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
BALTIMORE (AP) — Former secretary of state and presidential adviser Alexander Haig is in critical condition at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Hospital spokesman Gary Stephenson said Friday that the 85-year-old was admitted Jan. 28 and remains in critical condition. Stephenson says he cannot say why Haig is hospitalized.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Problem is, Haig was correct when he said that. Larry Speakes, the Press Secretary was asked by Lesley Stahl “who is running the government” Speakes blew it when he answered “I cannot answer that question at this time” leaving the image that nobody was charge, Haig went down to the briefing room and gave his statement to reassure the public, government was functioning. VP Bush, Tip O’Neill and Strom Thurmond were not physically in the building. Haig meant he was the highest ranking Federal officer physically in the building. The libs crucified him over the years for that...
I don’t even think that was it, so much as when he said it, it was in a quavering voice that betrayed some anxiety.
Hell I cut slack for the guy. Even a general has times he’s unnerved. He deserves respect.
I always thought Haig got a bad rap over that moment -— it was instantly obvious (to me anyway) that he was doing what any sensible official in his position would do when the President has just been shot and the Vice-President is in a plane over the Pacific Ocean: simply assure the public, other governments, and especially the Soviets and other hostile powers, that the US executive was functioning.
it was not about “succession” it was about emergency functioning of the executive branch at that moment.....
Yet another example of how the Mediascum distorted an incident in a barrage of propaganda to advance their own ends
This time it is a problem with the FR System....
Haig played a large "crisis management" role as the Watergate scandal unfolded. Haig has been largely credited with keeping the government running while President Nixon was preoccupied with Watergate.[1]
Haig also played an instrumental role in finally persuading Nixon to resign. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Nixon had been assured of a pardon by Ford if he would resign. In this regard, in his 2001 book "Shadow," author Bob Woodward describes Haig's role as the point man between Nixon and then Vice President Gerald Ford during the final days of Watergate. According to the book, Haig played a major behind-the-scenes role in the delicate negotiations of the transfer of power from President Nixon to President Ford.
Haig remained White House Chief of Staff during the early days of the Ford Administration until Donald Rumsfeld replaced him in September 1974.
Prayers for General Haig, his family, and those tending his health.
The first to use the term “mis-spoke”.
Haig was the aide-de-camp to General Edward "Ned" Almond, a MacArthur pet and commander of X Corps during the early part of the war. He was in the room when MacArthur and Almond were discussing the then-proposed landing at Inchon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This quote from his autobiography is worth remembering, IMO:
"I realized that I had witnessed something that would go down in history, a Cincinnatian act of moral courage. Some years passed before I fully understood the lesson it contained; that when you are in a position of trust and a course you know to be right is questioned for political reasons, you must act on your own convictions based on your own experience, because that is your duty to the American people. It was not vainglory but wisdom that motivated MacArthur. He believed that the Inchon landing would succeed, and that it would save 100,000 lives. As events were to prove, he was right when everyone else was wrong."
He was also one of the few people who truly understood terrorism very early on, partially because he was the target of a terrorist attack when he was NATO commander.
I can already picture the cartoon with AH arriving at the pearly gates and announcing that he is in charge now.
Sadly likely, but still premature.
He died, per Fox News.
Just reported on Fox News that he has passed away. RIP Sec. Haig. Condolences to his family.
Hes Dead Jim
Just flashed on Fox News, the General has passed.
R.I.P.
We lost a good Man!
Alexander Haig, former secretary of state, dies
RIP General!
When two of his companies were engaged by a large hostile force, Colonel Haig landed amid a hail of fire, personally took charge of the units, called for artillery and air fire support and succeeded in soundly defeating the insurgent force...the next day a barrage of 400 rounds was fired by the Viet Cong, but it was ineffective because of the warning and preparations by Colonel Haig. As the barrage subsided, a force three times larger than his began a series of human wave assaults on the camp. Heedless of the danger himself, Colonel Haig repeatedly braved intense hostile fire to survey the battlefield. His personal courage and determination, and his skillful employment of every defense and support tactic possible, inspired his men to fight with previously unimagined power. Although his force was outnumbered three to one, Colonel Haig succeeded in inflicting 592 casualties on the Viet Cong... (HQ US Army, Vietnam, General Orders No. 2318 (May 22, 1967)
Haig was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart during his tour in Vietnam, and was eventually promoted to Colonel, becoming a brigade commander of the 1st Infantry Division (United States) in Vietnam."
I think it’s fine that he said that. He didn’t say he was President. He didn’t say Reagan had died and he was taking over. I liked Haig.
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