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For 30 years Washingtonians suspected that Alexander Haig was the Woodward and Bernstein's "deep throat" informant of their Washington Post columns that brought down Nixon's presidency. A few beltway-insiders, Haig bashers were disappointed, letdown even, when retired FBI agent Mark Felt revealed the truth that the informant was he, Felt.

Alexander Meigs Haig's resume lists West Point graduate, decorated war veteran of two wars, four-star general, advisor to three presidents, Supreme Allied Commander NATO, chief-of-staff of the White House for Nixon and Ford, Secretary of State for Reagan, and Republican presidential candidate in 1988.

For a man who uttered a thousand public statements the only one that can be instantly recalled is that laconic quip, "I am in control here, in the White House." Those words uttered only minutes after Ronald Reagan was shot were followed by an even more shocking pronouncement, "The helm is right here, and that means right in this chair for now, constitutionally, until the vice president gets here."

Haig's words came as a surprise to Dan Quayle, Vice-President, Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill, Speaker of the House, and Mike Mansfield, Senate Majority leader -- each of whom precedes the Secretary of State in succession to the presidency if the unthinkable does occur. Maybe Nixon had it right when he whispered to an aide that Haig [is] "the meanest, toughest, most ambitious s.o.b."

Haig had the ambition of Caesar, or Cassius, but the great man was completely lacking in guile. From a young age he saw himself cast in a great role.

The intrigue in Al Haig's life began early. Soon after his lawyer-father passed away Al's Irish-Catholic mother packed her ten-year-old son off to St. Joseph's Preparatory School where he was classmates with Jim McKay, the colorful ABC sports announcer.

The future soldier-diplomat-author graduated from the elite Lower Merion High in the suburb of Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Lower Merion's grads frequent the Ivys, and Haig was both an outstanding student as well as a three-sport athlete. There was nothing but disappointment when the letter from the United States Military Academy came his senior year and listed him no higher than a 3rd alternate for a slot at the prestigious West Point.

Call it pluck, or call it fate - but Haig made one last application to West Point during his sophomore year at Notre Dame, and this time he was accepted. World War II was in full swing as he entered his plebe year in 1944. Superintendent at the Military Academy then was General Maxwell Taylor. Haig spent much of his three years there marching tours for disciplinary infractions.

As is common in all military schools, many of the so-called "goats" put together careers that far outshine their spit-shined classmates. The Cadet First-Captain in Haig's graduating class was William J. Schuder, a gentleman who distinguished himself as a colonel in the Corps of Engineers.

However, by that time, 1970, Haig was on the fast track of going from Colonel to four-star rank in under five years - with no battlefield commands in between.

Al Haig's detractors are usually silenced upon learning the facts of his meteoric rise. He had an uncommon knack for being in the right place at the right time.

As a first lieutenant detailed to MacArthur's headquarters in Tokyo, it was Haig who took the phone call on June 25, 1950, from South Korean Ambassador John Muccio that the North Koreans had just flooded across the 38th parallel. Lt. Haig had to roust General MacArthur out of a meeting and give him the message verbatim.

Likewise, Haig was in the room with Generals Omar Bradley and Lawton Collins when MacArthur overruled both men with his decision to go forward with the Inchon amphibious landing on September 15, 1950.

Determined to abandon the cushy role of a staff officer, Haig begged for a combat role in Korea. He got his wish for a few months until hepatitis from a wound forced him off the battlefield.

As a staff officer the young Haig had two gifts that made him stand apart -- he could write a powerful and concise summation, and he could speak without constantly referring to notes. Major Haig was by the side of General Hamilton Twitchell in Iran when that general produced a one-sided assessment of the Shah's political situation. Haig knew that the assessment was inaccurate but bowed to the wishes of the Kennedy administration, in keeping his mouth shut.

He may have been a crisp briefing officer, but Colonel Haig proved his mettle in battle against the Viet Cong in 1967. Exactly 43 years ago this month the man commanded a battalion of the 1st Infantry (Big Red 1) in the battle of Ap Gu when they were pinned down by an overwhelming force of VC. Haig took to the air in a helicopter to direct the battle but was shot down. Despite the hard landing, he commanded his men in two days of hand-to-hand fighting to defeat the enemy. Westmoreland awarded him the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

It was another desk assignment in the Pentagon, however, that brought Al Haig to the realization that the Vietnam War had gotten far off course. He saw the inside of LBJ's plot to fabricate the Gulf of Tonken incident into something that it was not. Duty officer Haig took the call from an aircraft carrier commander relaying that a pilot was shot down over North Vietnam and rescue helicopters needed higher authority for the rescue deep inside enemy territory.

For a miserable six hours Haig and fellow officers at the Pentagon fumed while McNamara and Johnson dithered over whether to put helicopters and troops on the ground in the north to rescue that pilot. When the downed pilot's beeper deactivated, they realized that he'd either been captured or killed on the ground.

Henry Kissinger was the man who selected the brash colonel to become his deputy assistant in 1970. Haig read the top-secret messages that came to the White House. He made the early morning briefings to Kissinger and Nixon. Soon, Kissinger trusted Haig to deal directly with the Soviet Embassy.

In the dark days of the Watergate crisis, President Nixon often did not even come into the Oval Office. Haig and Kissinger were theoretically running the country the last three weeks before Nixon resigned.

On March 30, 1981, when Ronald Reagan was shot outside a hotel in Washington, D.C., Al Haig was fresh back from a five-year stint as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and settling into his role as Secretary of State. His announcement "I am in control here," was no coup attempt as some have accused. Rather, they were the calming remarks of a man who has been at the core of more crises than any American in modern history. He, more than any man in D.C., knew how to deal with an emergency -- and at that moment, he was the senior official.

A few years later Maggie Thatcher used Haig as a go-between with her and the government of Argentina. Reagan dismissed Haig for some unknown reason, but United Technologies Corporation immediately named him as CEO. From politicized general to hawkish diplomat, Al Haig was always in his country's service.

Dr. Thomas B. Horton is a history teacher at Porter-Gaud School. He lives in the Old Village of Mount Pleasant.