Word: haig
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...business was tying up some odds and ends on President Reagan's proposal for a sharp reduction in strategic nuclear arms. Several of the participants noted that there was something unusual about the meeting: it was not contentious. And that, they realized, was because Secretary of State Alexander Haig, even while arguing his department's position forcefully, seemed uncharacteristically at ease. Instead of thumping the table to emphasize his feelings, he viewed the problem with almost philosophical detachment. When a presidential decision went against him, he actually seemed to accept defeat gracefully...
Recalled one of the participants later: "For the first time at one of those meetings, he seemed at peace with himself. He seemed very un-Haig-like." Later that day, the reason for Haig's equanimity became obvious. The Secretary of State was about to leave the Government. Winning every argument no longer meant all that much to Haig; he could be generous to those he had long seen as his rivals for Reagan's attention...
...Haig, in fact, had rarely been at peace with himself in perhaps the most difficult job in the Cabinet. He had not been at ease with the Administration he served, or with the world full of problems that he had hoped to help solve. He had vowed to take charge of U.S. foreign policy. Having done so, Haig inevitably saw each challenge to his authority, each questioning of his wisdom and experience as a battle to be waged and won. A general as well as diplomat, he yearned to snap out crisp orders and enjoy the quick responses. He tended...
...Haig discovered, as he should have known after serving as Henry Kissinger's top assistant in the Nixon Administration and then as White House chief of staff during Watergate, that policymaking in Washington is a multiheaded monster. He could hardly have forgotten Kissinger's rantings at what the NSC chief saw as unwarranted interference by Secretary of State William Rogers. Or perhaps he learned too well from Kissinger that each little fight for bureaucratic turf, each squabble over who gets the fanciest globe-girdling aircraft, or who sleeps closest to the President in some foreign capital...
...While Haig's contentiousness and personality were handicaps, he nevertheless fought a valiant fight against huge obstacles. A practical man with formidable experience in world affairs, he was up against a President and a White House staff with no similar background. Reagan and such influential Cabinet officials as Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, moreover, were ideologues who tended to heed rather than carefully consider the likely result of their actions. Without the wholehearted backing of a strong President who had a clear vision of America's global role, Haig's attempt to forge a consistent policy was doomed...