In none of these areas was Haig’s impact lasting or memorable, and each case offers insight into his faults as a statesman and as a strategist. policies in Afghanistan, the Caribbean, Europe, and East Asia. Instead, each examines Haig on his own terms, placing him in the context of underexplored episodes and exploring the significant but stunted role the secretary of state played in shaping U.S. Why, then, has the Texas National Security Review convened this roundtable on Haig’s legacy? The five essays gathered here do not attempt to rehabilitate Haig or to diminish the achievements of his successor. If Haig saw himself as an embodiment of the “Great Man” theory of history, he has instead gone down as one of history’s also-rans. interventions in Central America - it has been limited, to the most part, to regional studies with little sense of his historical significance beyond the event itself. Where Haig’s role has been stressed - in the failed negotiations to forestall the Falklands War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and U.S. Unlike Shultz, who helped prompt Reagan to reduce Cold War tensions through major arms control agreements, it is difficult to credit Haig with any major foreign policy achievements. Compared against the drama of Reagan’s second term, when the administration engaged with the Soviet Union to wind down the Cold War and grappled with the aftermath of the Iran-Contra scandal, the first 18 months of the presidency, when Haig occupied the seventh floor at Foggy Bottom, appear as little more than prelude. Even as the Reagan administration’s foreign policies have received fresh attention from scholars in recent years, much of the focus remains on the administration’s latter years.
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He may have wanted control, but he certainly didn’t know how to secure it.įor the most part, historians have not done much to complicate Haig’s image. In hindsight, Haig’s gaffe appears more ironic than Machiavellian. In June 1982, after only 18 months of service, he was replaced by George Shultz. 3 But his combative personality, flair for the dramatic, and penchant for behind-the-scenes machinations ultimately put him out of step with the rest of the administration.
2 He demanded that Reagan name him “vicar” of foreign policy and appeared, just two weeks before the assassination attempt, on the cover of Time magazine with the headline “Taking Command” emblazoned across his chest. Described by Richard Nixon as “the meanest, toughest, most ambitious son of a bitch I ever knew,” Haig made no secret of his desire for power. “I am in control here,” he declared.įour decades later, the incident has become a metaphor for Haig’s tenure as secretary of state. But when pressed to clarify who was making decisions, Haig mangled the order of succession. Bush aboard Air Force Two, and the rest of the president’s aides gathered at the hospital, Haig strode out into the White House press room to reassure reporters that the federal government was still running. He had been in office for two months when, on March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot by a would-be assassin and rushed into emergency surgery. Rosenfeld, Washington Post Editorial Board, 1981įor most people, the only memorable thing about Secretary of State Alexander M. “If you are looking for villains in Washington, there is Alexander Haig.” 1
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