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

Alexander Haig

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Alexander Haig
Age: 85 †
Born: 1924
Born: December 2
Died: 2010
Died: February 20
Businessperson
Diplomat
Former United States Secretary Of State
Military Personnel
Politician
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Alexander Meigs Haig
Jr.
Alexander Meigs Al Haig Jr.
Understood
Russians
Military
Ambiguity
Political
Eyebrows
Would
Warning
Sent
Message
Clearly
Messages
Calculated

More quotes by Alexander Haig

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Prior to his takeover of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini was camping near Paris, giving daily news conferences to a fawning international press corps without a murmur of complaint to France from the United States about the disaster it was coddling in the incredibly naive liberal belief that this extremist cleric would be an improvement over the Shah.
Alexander Haig
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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.
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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
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That's not a lie, it's a terminological inexactitude.
Alexander Haig
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Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the president, the vice president and the secretary of state, in that order, and should the president decide he wants to transfer the helm to the vice president, he will do so. As for now, I'm in control here, in the White House.
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I probably carry more scar tissue on my derrière than any other candidate-that's political scar tissue.
Alexander Haig
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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
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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
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You know, it's very clear, as one looks back on history again of the Cold War that, following the crisis in Cuba, following the Khrushchev - beating down of Jack Kennedy in Vienna, that President Kennedy believed that we had to join the battle for the Third World, and the next crisis that developed in that regards was Vietnam.
Alexander Haig
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Let them march all they want, as long as they continue to pay their taxes.
Alexander Haig
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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
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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
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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
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In Desert Storm, we had too many troops in Afghanistan probably not enough for the major commitment we have made.
Alexander Haig