Alexander Haig Dead at 85 – Personal Memory

A West Point grad, Secretary of State, Chief of White House staff and former President of United Technologies, General Alexander Haig has died at age 85 reportedly from an infection. You will get the chance to read his bio in this post below, and here at Steve’s post, but I wanted to make mention of my personal contacts with General Haig when I was a reporter with WFSB-TV.You will hear today he was an intimidating presence, but I don’t remember him that way. Business like, a general always, but whenever I saw him he had a smile. I am sure it was much different for those who worked for him, and I did not. But I know I admired him very much for his service to our country.

Haig joined United Technologies (UTC) in 1979 and I got the chance to interview him in the spring of 1980 (see picture at left) and again just before he left UTC to become Secretary of State in 1981 .I don’t remember much about either interview actually. Pretty standard stuff. But I do remember one thing about the second.

Rumors had been flying that President Reagan would select Haig to be Secretary of State, and so in Hartford, getting an interview would be a nice get. Calls went unanswered, and so I decided to camp out at his house at 5 a.m. I chose 5 a.m. because he was a general, and as my Dad taught me, once a military man, always a military man. It made sense.

Sometime after 6 a.m., Haig emerged from his house fully dressed and ready for work, walking down the long driveway to get his paper and smiling all the way. I remember his words more than the interview … “you are really something.” I wasn’t sure, really, if it was a compliment, and I  worried he felt I had invaded his privacy. But that wasn’t the general. He respected initiative.

The interview was brief. He had a huge grin on his face the entire interview. He was in charge and both he and I knew it. I was no match. He gave no hint other than to say if called he would serve his country, but little more than that. In a matter of weeks he accepted the position and left UTC.

He would later return to serve on UTC’s board as an adviser, a shrewd move by United Technologies which is a major military contractor. No one knew DC better than General Haig. Below is his bio, and will be adding video later.

Alexander Haig, the decorated four- star general and assertive aide to U.S. presidents who declared himself “in control” at the White House after Ronald Reagan was shot, has died, the Associated Press reported. He was 85.

He died today at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore from complications associated with an infection, AP said, citing the Haig family.

Haig straddled the worlds of politics and the military during almost two decades in posts that included supreme commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. His 18- month tenure as Reagan’s first secretary of state, the pinnacle of his political career, was marred by turf battles and by the famous comment he could never live down.

May God be with you general.

Others writing … Gateway Pundit and The Washington Times.

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

7 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on February 20, 2010 at 8:45 am

    Wow, Jim!  I barely recognized you with dark hair and no baseball cap!

     

    That was a nice memory.



    • Dimsdale on February 20, 2010 at 8:45 am

      By the way, he was right: you really are something!



    • Anne-EH on February 21, 2010 at 6:06 am

      Shows that Jim became part of history also. :)=^..^=



    • Jim Vicevich on February 20, 2010 at 11:12 am

      Thanks Dims. He will be dissected in the press I know. He loved his country. Held it together during watergate. Made sure those tapes were not destroyed. That's bio stuff.

      I really liked him. I did. He was aGeneral for God's sake. What did the press expect to get when they interviewed him? I will miss him very much.



    • Anne-EH on February 21, 2010 at 6:04 am

      Dims, just looking at that picture of General Haig, even when head did not wear the uniform anymore, I still had regards for him as such, does bring back also A LOT OF MEMORIES for me also. Remember I am not that far away from Jim in age. Will be 51 in about 6 weeks. :)=^..^=



  2. Anne-EH on February 20, 2010 at 8:59 pm

    Jim, your memories about?General Alexander Haig and that picture you had posted, showing you when you were a young news reporter, and as Dims has pointed out, without the baseball caps and the dark hair, WOW, you REALLY DID go out of your way to interview General Haig and to be a part of history.
    I remember Jim the day the attempt on President Ronald Reagan took place and watching on tv at the time, General Haig in what looked like a press conference saying that he was in charge so as to calm a nervous America. That was his military like way of showing leadership at a time of crisis.
    Also Jim, posted your blog article over on Free Republic. Here is the URL:
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2455710/posts
    Thanks Jim for your reflection and commentary on your interviewing of General Haig.
    General Alexander Haig, Eternal Rest and RIP.



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