"I am in Control"

[klubkleb]

Alexander Haig, RIP

I have never understood the hub-bub over his March 30, 1981 comment in the wake and chaos of the Reagan shooting ("As of now, I am control here in the White House, pending the return of the Vice President....").

Granted, in the early weeks of the Reagan presidency, Haig had gotten a bit of a reputation as being a bit power hungry (or overly turf-conscious), specifically a battle he lost to Bush overwho'd coordinate crisis management matters.

But his words that day should have served to reassure the country that the government was operating with some semblance of order while the President was in surgery and the VP was on an airplane.

What would the reaction have been had Haig, when asked who was running things, replied, "I don't know."?

[bazzer]

I was not even 100% sure he was still alive. Funny thing is, he came up in a conversation I was having just yesterday... first time I'd thought of him in years.

Did anyone else here read the book "Silent Coup?" It was (I suppose) a revisionist take on Watergate, albeit thoroughly documented and footnoted, which fingered Haig as Deep Throat. It was a compelling read and they made a pretty good case, and when the no-name William Felt took credit for being DT a few years back, I wondered whether that was the whole story. Still do.

[klubkleb]

Well, now you CAN be 100% sure: He's dead.

I recall skimming that book....and figuring it would have been very unbelievable for Haig to have been DT--firstly, him--a fairly well-known bureaucrat at the time--skulking around parking garages late at night, was kind of funny to imagine.

I think it was either Rosemary Woods or Pat Nixon.

[bazzer]

...a fairly well-known bureaucrat at the time--skulking around parking garages late at night, was kind of funny to imagine...


Yeah. You probably right. It was still a good read, though. Had hookers and everything.

[Philly]

I have never understood the hub-bub over his March 30, 1981 comment in the wake and chaos of the Reagan shooting ("As of now, I am control here in the White House, pending the return of the Vice President....").

At the White House briefing the day Reagan was shot, Haig said with great certainty that the constitutional succession had him, as Sec. of State, second in line after the VP. He was wrong, he was third after the Speaker of the House.

The great foreshadowing of Cheny's say it with conviction and they will believe.

[bazzer]

Yeah, if he hadn't misstated the line of succession I doubt there would have been a controversy. Haig wasn't assuming presidential authority, merely saying "I'm in control here" pending Bush's return. Tip O'Neill and Strom Thurmond were obviously not in charge at the White House at that time (ha ha) so what he said was otherwise factually accurate.

[Paul]

Alexander Haig, RIP

I have never understood the hub-bub over his March 30, 1981 comment in the wake and chaos of the Reagan shooting ("As of now, I am control here in the White House, pending the return of the Vice President....").

Granted, in the early weeks of the Reagan presidency, Haig had gotten a bit of a reputation as being a bit power hungry (or overly turf-conscious), specifically a battle he lost to Bush overwho'd coordinate crisis management matters.

But his words that day should have served to reassure the country that the government was operating with some semblance of order while the President was in surgery and the VP was on an airplane.

What would the reaction have been had Haig, when asked who was running things, replied, "I don't know."?

I agree with you. I thought he said the right thing. He was the highest one in line who was in the White House at the time. Had the VP or Speaker been in the White House it would have been one of them making the same statement. Although, maybe the speaker, if available, should have gone to the White House.

[Bart Lidofsky]

I agree with you. I thought he said the right thing. He was the highest one in line who was in the White House at the time. Had the VP or Speaker been in the White House it would have been one of them making the same statement. Although, maybe the speaker, if available, should have gone to the White House.
I thought I had mentioned this, but there was one other important factor that is not often mentioned; Haig had and was actively using full telephone access to George Bush. In other words, he was not making the decisions; he was implementing the instructions from the person who DID have the power to make the decisions, being more of a COO than a CEO.