Haig Formally Enters Race
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NEW YORK — Former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. formally announced his bid for the presidency today with tough words for the Soviet Union and a reassurance for voters that inside his “militant, turf-conscious, excessively ambitious demeanor is a heart as big as all outdoors.”
The retired four-star Army general acknowledged that his candidacy for the 1988 Republican nomiation is a long shot, but said he has the ability and the desire to lead the nation into the 1990s.
“The President’s pre-eminent task is to lead. To lead, a President must be a driven man, driven by the force of his conviction in the rightness of his cause,” Haig, 62, said.
Haig resigned from the Reagan Administration in 1982 after a stormy 18 months as secretary of state.
His most public moment came shortly after Reagan was felled in an assassination attempt March 30, 1981. He appeared in the White House press room and declared “As of now, I am in control here in the White House pending the return of the vice president.”
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