Alexander Haig Quotes

#1. When President Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for Watergate, he actually pardoned Alexander Haig for the JFK assassination.

Tegan Mathis

#2. That's not a lie, it's a terminological inexactitude.

Alexander Haig

#3. You have to look at the history of the Middle East in particular. It has been one of failure and frustration, of feudalism and tribalism.

Alexander Haig

#4. We didn't lose Vietnam. We quit Vietnam.

Alexander Haig

#5. We didn't do anything wrong, but among the lessons learned, given the magnitude of the problems we now face in Afghanistan, a major U.S. force on the ground would convince the world we were in for the long-haul recovery of a country devastated by 21 years of warfare.

Alexander Haig

#6. Syria is a terrorist state by any definition and is so classified by the State Department. I happen to think Iran is too. Iraq, Iran, Syria, they're all involved.

Alexander Haig

#7. Let them march all they want, as long as they continue to pay their taxes.

Alexander Haig

#8. Propaganda was an important arm of the Soviet diplomacy, very important.

Alexander Haig

#9. Then came the hostage crisis during which Carter did nothing to rattle the ayatollahs who hung tough until Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, when they suddenly backed down.

Alexander Haig

#10. I prefer to think of it as burning down their crops. [when asked why he - a fervent anti-Communist - smoked Cuban cigars]

Alexander Meigs Haig Jr.

#11. I'm the only American alive or dead who presided unhappily over the removal of a vice president and a president.

Alexander Haig

#12. As of now, I am in control here in the White House.

Alexander Haig

#13. Practice rather than preach. Make of your life an affirmation, defined by your ideals, not the negation of others. Dare to the level of your capability then go beyond to a higher level.

Alexander Haig

#14. Israel is the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk, does not carry even one American soldier, and is located in a critical region for American national security.

Alexander Haig

#15. It didn't take long for the world to realize that the Shah was an enlightened liberal next to the bloody reactionary regime that followed, and which executed more people in three months than the Shah had done in 30 years.

Alexander Haig

#16. The warning message we sent the Russians was a calculated ambiguity that would be clearly understood.

Alexander Haig

#17. The loss of candor is grievous, and in my opinion it may yet prove to be mortal, because if we cannot discuss our problems in plain speech that describes reality, it is unlikely that we will be able to solve them.

Alexander Haig

#18. In Desert Storm, we had too many troops; in Afghanistan probably not enough for the major commitment we have made.

Alexander Haig

#19. I think the new generations in America, the America's youth, no longer care about Vietnam. They don't want to hear any more about it.

Alexander Haig

#20. If they analyze the situation as thoroughly as they should, Muslims will realize they are the first targets. What are the fundamentalists really after? Simply taking over Islam and then turning its back on modernity.

Alexander Haig

#21. More often than not, Americans and Westerners overestimated the power and capability of the Soviet Union.

Alexander Haig

#22. There are contingency plans in the NATO doctrine to fire a nuclear weapon for demonstrative purposes, to demonstrate to the other side that they are exceeding the limits of toleration in the conventional area.

Alexander Haig

#23. To declare the Cold War over, and declare democracy has won out over totalitarianism, is a measure of arrogance and wrong-headedness.

Alexander Haig

#24. I wasn't happy with the outcome in Vietnam. Now, I've never said that, but, you know, I'm getting to an age where I think I'd better start saying it ... And I don't mean that to sound that I'm being critical of somebody or blaming somebody.

Alexander Haig

#25. A durable, long-term U.S.-China strategic relationship is even more important now than in previous decades. The relationship will continue to grow and prosper to the mutual benefit of all peoples.

Alexander Haig

#26. Sooner or later something had to give. But President Bush, faced with the unprecedented affront of 9-11, could not wait to take action. So he had to do what we were capable of doing, and he did it brilliantly.

Alexander Haig

#27. The world awaits Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Olympics, an occasion which will bring into the global spotlight the dramatic advances China is making in enhancing the quality of life for its people.

Alexander Haig

#28. I think that perhaps the classic propagandists of the - in the Second World War was Winston Churchill. He was extremely skilled and adept at it.

Alexander Haig

#29. What the fundamentalists are doing is a total negation of their own faith - encouraging and lionizing suicide bombers and killing women and children, hardly in keeping with the teachings of Prophet Mohammed.

Alexander Haig

#30. I started out as a Cold Warrior, even my last years in grade school.

Alexander Haig

#31. As I look back at the span of the Cold War in those early days, in the '50s, for example, there was a great deal of Soviet propaganda here in the United States, but it was clumsy, and it was anchored to a lot of ideological support in certain circles in America itself.

Alexander Haig

#32. Those who are seeking ways to tap into the potential of e-mail will find themselves in a position to capitalize on the pending explosion in Internet usage.

Alexander Haig