That's one less bastard left in the world today

[DoYouEverWonder]

Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig dies at 85

February 20, 2010

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/20/ ... /?hpt=Sbin

[Wombaticus Rex]

He was probably really nice to his family and friends. Plus, I have to point out that dead, he is no longer a bastard -- just another soul swimming it's way back to the source. Amen.

[barracuda]

He pulled off the briefest coup in U.S. history. It lasted about seventeen minutes.

Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the President, the Vice President and the Secretary of State in that order, and should the President decide he wants to transfer the helm to the Vice President, he will do so. He has not done that. As of now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending return of the Vice President and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course.

[DoYouEverWonder]

He was probably really nice to his family and friends. Plus, I have to point out that dead, he is no longer a bastard -- just another soul swimming it's way back to the source. Amen.

Yeah, what a guy.

After seeing combat in Korea and Vietnam, Haig—an Army colonel at the time—was tapped by Henry Kissinger to be his military adviser on the National Security Council under Nixon. Haig "soon became indispensable," Kissinger later said of his protege.

Nixon promoted Haig in 1972 from a two-star general to a four-star rank, passing over 240 high-ranking officers with greater seniority.

The next year, as the Watergate scandal deepened, Nixon turned to Haig and appointed him to succeed H.R. Haldeman as White House chief of staff. He helped the president prepare his impeachment defense—and as Nixon was preoccupied with Watergate, Haig handled many of the day-to-day decisions normally made by the chief executive.

On Nixon's behalf, Haig also helped arrange the wiretaps of government officials and reporters, as the president tried to plug the sources of news leaks.

About a year after assuming his new post as Nixon's right-hand man, Haig was said to have played a key role in persuading the president to resign. He also suggested to Gerald Ford that he pardon his predecessor for any crimes committed while in office—a pardon that is widely believed to have cost Ford the presidency in 1976.

http://www.ldnews.com/news/ci_14439878

[Jeff]

Thanks to John Gorenfeld for this:

Truth Is My Sword Volume I - Collected Speeches in the Public Arena

by Bo Hi Pak

Introduction By General Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

General Alexander M. Haig, Jr., USA (Ret.) was U.S. Secretary of State (1981-82) and Supreme Allied Commander of NATO (1975-79).

This compilation of selected speeches from 1978 to 1999 by Dr. Bo Hi Pak is a remarkable treatise on one man's devotion to his country, his faith, and indeed to the creation of a better world for all mankind. Soldier, diplomat, business leader, publisher, teacher, religious leader, Dr. Pak has served as key assistant to Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, for over forty years. As such, Dr. Pak's speeches provide a unique perspective on many of the events that have shaped the post-World War II period during the Cold War and beyond.

As a long-time friend of Dr. Pak, I garnered a far better appreciation of the global reach and the remarkable variety of his activities through reading these speeches. Thus, I am pleased to contribute this Introduction to his Truth Is My Sword, cognizant of the determination and energy with which Dr. Pak has sought to further his deeply held personal convictions.

Reflecting on the life that is recounted in many of Dr. Pak's speeches, the reader will be struck by the passion with which this man has approached the many challenges and struggles that often characterize the lives of those few who are willing to sacrifice for the common good and for principled causes. Born in Japanese-occupied Korea in 1930, Dr. Pak describes the impact of the Korean War on his love for and ultimate loyalty to the United States. Having served on the staff in Tokyo and in frontline positions in Korea under General Douglas MacArthur, I can easily identify the admiration which Dr. Pak obviously holds for General MacArthur. Dr. Pak understood, even as a young veteran, that it was MacArthur's strategic vision and rare leadership that enabled the Republic of Korea to become a frontline state in the struggle against Soviet attempts at global hegemony. Since much of my own life has been dedicated to the containment and, where appropriate, the rollback of Soviet imperialism, I strongly endorse the work Dr. Pak has done to develop and operate organizations designed to promote values inimical to the tenets of Marxist Leninism.

...

On August 26, 1991, at Dr. Pak's invitation, I spoke on the "Prospects for Peace" at the inaugural meeting in Seoul, Korea, of the International Federation for World Peace. I concluded my remarks on that occasion as follows:

Are our grandchildren going to say to us, you were content to tend your own vineyard while your neighbor struggled? Or are we going to rise above the temptations or complacency so that the peace of the 21st century is truly a contrast to the conflict of the 20th century? We must work as nations together so that it may be said of us: They prepared a world of the future that redeemed by its justness the suffering of the past.

Dr. Bo Hi Pak is one who has not been content to sit on the sidelines as others struggled. He has risen above complacency and he has committed himself to making the 21st century better for us all. His speeches and actions are a testament to this noble work.

http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unifica ... 1-00-d.htm

[DrVolin]

He pulled off the briefest coup in U.S. history. It lasted about seventeen minutes.

Actually, I would argue that with that statement, he took only seven minutes to prevent a coup. Haig was nowhere near ignorant of the constitution. We have to consider the possibility that he acted purposefully. My guess is that he figured out what was happening, and stepped in.

[operator kos]

He was probably really nice to his family and friends. Plus, I have to point out that dead, he is no longer a bastard -- just another soul swimming it's way back to the source. Amen.

That's beautiful.

I, however, prefer to think that he is on his way to becoming Satan's new cock ring.

I do realize that makes you a better person.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Depends on how badly Satan needs that new cock ring. We don't have all the facts yet.

[operator kos]

See? You even have sympathy for the devil. What a charitable heart!

[justdrew]

Haig was gonzo in a way, especially back in his Colonel days... I don't see him as being among the worst of the worst. He hated Bush and that's good enough for me. not a saint but not a sinner either. I suspect he attempted to moderate the Crazies back in the day and he's someone who actually put their ass on the line unlike the cheny/bush chickenhawk scum.

[AlicetheKurious]

Don't forget: he was Kissinger's criminal co-conspirator in hijacking the presidency of the United States and bringing the entire world to the brink of a nuclear disaster, during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War:

...Kissinger and Haig decided to convene a meeting of national-security officials to devise a response to Brezhnev. Kissinger acknowledges in his memoirs that Nixon was by then asleep, and that he and Haig decided not to get him up. "Should I wake up the President?," Kissinger asked Haig during a 9:50 p.m. phone conversation on October 24, according to the transcript. "No," Haig answered. A half-hour later, in another phone conversation, it is Kissinger who has become reluctant. "Have you talked to the President?," Haig asked. "No, I haven't," Kissinger replied. "He would just start charging around I don't think we should bother the President." Haig persuaded Kissinger to at least shift the meeting from the State Department to the White House, as a way to leave the impression that Nixon was "a part of everything you are doing." Was Nixon on sedatives that would not allow him to function effectively? Had he been drinking? Was he simply preoccupied, as Kissinger suggests in his official recollections? For whatever reason, Kissinger did not want the president involved.

It was an extraordinary turn of events. None of the seven officials who met for more than three hours, until two a.m., had been elected to office. Yet they were setting policy in a dangerous international crisis, and coming to a decision that should have rested with the president: directing U.S. forces to raise America's worldwide level of military readiness from Defense Conditions 4 and 5 to Def Con 3, a level reached only once before, during the Cuban missile crisis.

...Although the White House issued a statement attributing to Nixon the decision to put the nation on high alert, and Kissinger repeated this assertion at a press briefing, it was Kissinger and the six other national-security officials in the early-morning hours who actually chose to do it, though presumably confident that they reflected Nixon's wishes. But how confident could they really have been? As Kissinger would remind Haig the next day, according to the transcript of a phone call, "You and I were the only ones for it. These other guys were wailing all over the place this morning."...

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/feat ... rentPage=3

And all for what? To make sure that Israel could continue to violate the ceasefire the U.S. itself had helped to broker.

[justdrew]

Alice I agree with you on a lot but that's not entirely fair. Thank god they didn't involve nixion.

maybe he'd have decided he could save his presidency by a little shooting with the soviets?

He was in no condition to make good choices that night. Having just read up on the history of that war, I gotta say it could have been so much worse, I have to think kissinger and the rest did a fairly good job in that matter, arriving at a fairly balanced resolution that lead to the Camp David accords eventually and a cementing of "super-power" cooperation rather than conflict.

I'm a little surprised to find myself agreeing with kissinger, but hey, maybe I'm all wrong?

still, I'd like to see settled boarders and justice for Palestinians but I cant support aggressive war against Israel either.

[Joe Hillshoist]

[justdrew]

DK's true as ever... another lyrical mention...

[Joe Hillshoist]

The Fletcher memorial home
for colonial
wasters
of life and limb.

Good one man I haven't heard that for years.