Alexander Haig, the career army officer and former secretary of state died Saturday aged 85.
Haig served in the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations and later as secretary of state under Ronald Reagan.
In 1982, Haig attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate a resolution to the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands.
He served as Supreme Allied Commander, Europe – or SACEUR - from 1974 to 1979. According to legend, one Canadian official is said to have observed on learning of his appointment that “one Haig in this century was enough,” a reference to the performance of British Commander Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig in the First World War.
A Different Third Paragraph Would Have Been Nicer Update: The third paragraph of Haig’s NYT obit did indeed mention the events at the White House on the day Ronald Reagan was shot, just as predicted.
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