Word: haig
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Still, Haig saw the Israelis' need for U.S. help in establishing any kind of international force as a chance to exert some leverage on the Begin government. His hope: to make Israel more amenable to trying to solve the basic problem in the Middle East?working out some kind of satisfactory arrangement for the Palestinians...
Although the U.S. had opposed the invasion, Haig saw its consequences as an opportunity that should be exploited: the P.L.O. was crippled as a military force; the formation of a strong Lebanese government could induce the Syrians to leave the country; and the establishment of a solid buffer zone in the south might ease the Israelis' fears about their security and thus make them more willing to come to terms with the Palestinians...
...Administration was split over how much pressure to put on Begin. Haig insisted that the best way to influence the Israelis was to work quietly behind the scenes. But Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Vice President George Bush argued that a business-as-usual attitude toward Israeli aggression would cost the U.S. even more credibility among the moderate Arab states, which, despite Administration efforts to dissuade them, were convinced that Israel had been given the implicit backing of Washington for the invasion...
Next the hard-liners on Israel persuaded the President, over Haig's objection, to have the White House say that Begin's scheduled visit with Reagan this week was "tentative." The condition: Israel should not attack Beirut. But the announcement had little impact. State Department diplomats promptly phoned the Israeli embassy in Washington to say that the meeting was really still on, and Begin, who was already in New York City, ostentatiously called his Cabinet to order his colleagues to make decisions about Beirut "regardless" of the U.S. threats. As one Administration official told TIME Correspondent Johanna McGeary, "You indulge...
...When Haig joined Begin for breakfast on Friday morning in the Prime Minister's 29th-floor suite in Manhattan's Waldorf Towers, each of the blunt-spoken men knew precisely where the other stood. The previous day, Begin had spoken to Haig on the telephone, telling him that he deeply resented the feeble attempt by the Administration to bully him. For 45 minutes, after their aides had been dismissed, the two men munched Danish pastry, sipped coffee and spoke their minds...