Word: haig
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Just when Alexander Haig thought it was safe to go back into the water, with the internecine foreign policy disputes that have characterized his tenure seemingly flushed away by the Administration's victory on the sale of AWACS planes to Saudi Arabia, the Secretary of State once again felt the chill of sharks in the White House out to get him. Though only their dorsal fins were visible, it was generally assumed that lurking beneath the surface of rumor and innuendo was Haig's natural adversary, National Security Adviser Richard Allen. The two have had their differences...
...threatened Reagan's reputation as an executive. Yet he and his chief aides were forced to spend precious time quelling the controversy. The episode began when White House Staff Director David Gergen saw an advance copy of a column by Jack Anderson. Administration sources, Anderson wrote, said that Haig "has one foot on a banana peel" and might fall soon. Gergen called Haig, who called Anderson. The rumors, the Secretary of State told the columnist, were the work of a top White House aide who has been running a "guerrilla campaign" against him that was tantamount to a "sabotage...
...Haig also called Reagan at Camp David, who was sent a copy of the unpublished column. Reagan, already irritated by the continuing talk of intramural dissent, became even angrier. He called Anderson himself. "We haven't had a Secretary who was so well thought of in years," the President said. The tempest became public when Anderson published a revised column that included all of the top-level protestations...
Allen responded that he was not the subject of Haig's accusation, even though he has been known to make an occasional caustic remark about the Secretary of State. "As a matter of fact, Haig called me to say that he knows it's not me," said Allen. Chief of Staff James Baker, one of Haig's prime suspects, similarly denied being the culprit. Said Baker: "Someone led him to believe that I was the source of the rumor that he would be fired. We cleared that up." So who is it? "I don't know...
...subject of cabinet officers, a reporter asked the unavoidable question about reported tiffs between Haig and other members of the administration...