Alexander Haig, who said 'i am in charge' in 1981, passes on

Alexander Haig passed away today at 85 years old at 1:30 AM at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Alexander Haig was famous for the statment 'I am in charge', as presented in the Associated Press video below. Alexander Haig, or "Al Haig" as the four-star general was called, was next in the chain of command of the United States (even though there was no formal declaration of his position) after Ronald Reagan was shot and hospitalized by John Hinkley's 1981 assassination attempt. At the time of the AP video, Haig was reported to be in critical condition:



This video presents the events that led up to the President Reagan assassination attempt, Hinkley's desire to "get Reagan" because he was trying to get the attention of actress Jody Foster, and Alexander Haig's role in taking over for the ailing President as Secretary of State:



At the time, this blogger remembers a fear that Haig was grabbing power and was going to do something rash like push the nuclear button against the Soviet Union.

 Then, President Reagan was just 68 days into office, cold war tensions were heating up, and there was a constant fear of the ignition of World War III. Alexander Haig's assent just heightened those fears. Fortunately they didn't come to pass.

Alexander Haig played a major role in American Presidential history. In the video below, Haig talks to then-President Reagan about the Vietnam War information leak called "The Pentagon Papers".

 The conversation came after Nixon appointed Haig as the person to direct wiretaps of government officials and news reporters:



After his unfortunate statement and coupled with his role in the Pentagon Papers, Alexander Haig spent part of life essentially trying to overcome the awful image he crafted for himself as a warmonger. But Haig's ties to the Nixon Administration and his outspoken and aggressive views on American Foreign Policy, countered that.

In the video below made in 2006, Alexander Haig, then the Director of the Nixon Library, made statements about not just media power ("the modernization of information technology has created a power in the press that's unprecedented") but what he claims is its involvement in the approval of the Iraq War effort after 9-11.



Haig's comments, in the first 1:30 of the video, are telling in that they confirm claims that much of the mainstream media was supporting George W. Bush's Iraq War effort by issuing "pro war" reports.

As Haig aged, I think he took on a more realistic and far less ideological view of the World, and American Government's role in it. That coupled with his experience makes any video of an interview with Alexander Haig required viewing for students of American politics and foreign policy.