The Presidency: A Diplomatic Dandy

The Presidency/Hugh Sidey

There are two Alexander Haigs operating from the Secretary of State’s big office, with that magnificent view of the Potomac River Valley. One is the explosive soldier of opportunity, a two-dimensional television power-grubber who talks funny and scares children with wild words about nuclear explosions and White House guerrillas. The other is a veteran warrior for foreign policy moderation, fighting on several fronts for a reasoned and effective global diplomacy.

The second Al Haig may be gaining a little high ground. He presides some mornings over eggs with ambassadors and journalists, leading them on a tour of the world’s far horizons, trying to make sense of the jumble of events and people, both inside the Reagan Government and outside.

Dressed in crisp glen plaids, a white handkerchief neatly puffed from breast pocket, Haig is a dandy. He seems the very model of the modern military diplomat. He has a square face, a terrier’s chin and eyes that obscure a great deal. He loves his work. He just may win his campaign to be the predominant formulator of foreign policy for the U.S.

The intriguing thing these days, after so many unhappy personal eruptions, is that experts of both political parties in Washington share a growing regard for his foreign policy views. Following his footsteps through the labyrinthine back corridors of statecraft, one gets the unmistakable image of a man who feels compelled to confront both the extremists in Reagan’s house and the far right on Capitol Hill. At the heart of it all is a struggle for Ronald Reagan’s mind. The President’s splendid speech on arms reduction in Europe was a vital signal in that unfinished drama.

The Secretary is striving to hold back the right-wingers from forcing a sale of jet fighters to Taiwan, an action that could unhinge our tender relations with mainland China. Candidate Reagan was a Taiwan booster. President Reagan may see it differently if Haig’s entreaties are skillful. On the Middle East, Haig is trying to keep his Government, and others, from plunging recklessly after the Saudi peace plan; even a mild endorsement of that flawed proposal, he feels, would wreck the Camp David process and might damage all prospects for Middle East peace.

Al Haig is no dove. He has the soldier’s instinct to deal from strength. But he wants to talk with the Soviets about arms limitations, to heed the protests in Europe and across the U.S. against nuclear weapons, to keep our foreign-aid programs strong, to use words instead of bullets. Haig’s mission to Mexico City last week, yet another maneuver in the cause of restraint, was designed to ease fears of American military intervention in the Caribbean, and to try to get Mexico to help ease the crises in Nicaragua and El Salvador. The Secretary is convinced that nonaligned countries are ready to tilt our way, despite all the surface squabbles and the complaints about U.S. leadership or lack of it. The desires for freedom, for enough food and for economic opportunity run stronger than ideology at every latitude. Soviet military might has cast its pall across the globe. It is the season for inspired moderation, and all the signs indicate that the second Al Haig is carrying the banner.

The mystery of the personal outbursts that have so clouded his better nature is unsolved. A television reporter tried to find out if Haig took drugs after his heart surgery, believing that they might have triggered his ill-temper. Haig’s friends have practiced amateur psychology but come up empty. The answer may lie in the Secretary’s fierce belief that he is engaged in a battle, of sorts, and that only audacity will preserve his authority, both around the White House and abroad. His is a high-risk venture. He could be fired tomorrow. But if he wins, there are many who believe that it will be to everyone’s benefit.