Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. was United States secretary of state under president Ronald Reagan and White House chief of staff under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior to and in between these cabinet-level positions, he was a general in the U.S. Army, serving first as the vice chief of staff of the Army and then as Supreme Allied Commander Europe. In 1973, Haig became the youngest four-star general in the Army's history.
Haig c. 1970s
Major General Haig being presented with the Distinguished Service Medal by President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office in 1973
Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Haig meeting on Ford's forthcoming appointment as vice president in 1973
Haig's official chief of staff portrait
United States Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government and the head of the Department of State. The office holder is the second-highest-ranking member of the president's Cabinet, after the vice president, and ranks fourth in the presidential line of succession; first amongst cabinet secretaries.
United States Secretary of State