Gen Alexander Meigs Haig, Jr. USA (Retired)
Cullum: 16375
Class: '47
Cadet Company: H1
Date of Birth: December 2, 1924
Date of Death: February 20, 2010 - View or Post a Eulogy
General Alexander M. Haig, Jr. attended Notre Dame for two years before obtaining his appointment to West Point in 1944. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1947 and later received a master’s degree in international relations from Georgetown University and pursued graduate studies in business administration at Columbia University. He married Patricia Antoinette Fox, the daughter of General Alonzo Fox in May 1950. They had three children.
He served in Japan, Korea, Europe and Vietnam. He took part in the Inchon landings. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism. He served on the faculty of West Point. In 1969 he served as Senior Military Adviser to Dr. Henry Kissinger during the Nixon Administration. He later became Richard Nixon’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs. President Nixon promoted him to be a four-star general and the Army's vice-chief of staff. He was President Nixon’s personal emissary to negotiate the Vietnam cease-fire and the return of U.S. prisoners of war. In 1974 President Ford appointed him as Commander-in-Chief, U.S. European Command and later as Supreme Allied Command in Europe. In 1980, Gen. Haig was confirmed as the nation’s 59th Secretary of State in the Reagan administration. General Haig was a Republican candidate for President of the United States in 1987 and 1988. He was president of Worldwide Associates, Inc., a member of the Board of Directors of America Online, Inc., Interneuron Pharmaceuticals Inc., and MGM Grand Inc., and the American Board of Trustees of the A.F. Burns Fellowship.
