Word: haige
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...cold 1980 December night, before Ronald Reagan's newly elected Government was in power, Richard Nixon stirred a pitcher of exquisitely dry martinis in the study of his Manhattan town house and addressed the topic of the moment. General Alexander Haig had just been rumored to be the top candidate for Secretary of State. Beneath the famous brows, Nixon's dark eyes shone. "I know Al Haig," he said. "He is one of the most ruthless, toughest, ambitious s.o.b.s I know. He'd make a great Secretary of State...
...martinis took hold, and then the Chinese dinner softened some of the remaining reserve, the former President went one step further. "If Haig is running for President from the State Department," said Nixon, "it will never work...
...alarming and perplexing void that followed Haig's resignation last week, the belief took root that his consuming appetite for power was at least partly responsible for his demise. He wanted to be President. He wanted the one position still denied him in his singular zeal to straighten out this nation and reorder the world...
...Haig, a bundle of Jesuit rectitude and West Point ardor, rose to power through the smoldering remains of one political disaster after another. His intentions were not evil...
First, his country. Then himself. He collected the fragments of power from the dying Nixon presidency and actually ran the nation in the final gasp of Watergate. In the wimpish season of Jimmy Carter, Haig commanded NATO and flattered his way to leadership pre-eminence in Western Europe's convoluted court life...