February 22, 2010 — The Summit Council mourns the passing of General Alexander M. Haig, Jr. (USA), the 59th Secretary of State of the United States, and a great friend of the Summit Council for World Peace, the Federation for World Peace, and of our founder, Rev. Sun Myung Moon. He died on February 20 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Alexander Haig was a four-star United States Army general who served as the first Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan, as White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and as Deputy National Security Advisor under Henry Kissinger. He also served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe commanding all NATO forces. He also was President of United Technologies Corporation and a founding Board member of America Online. Haig graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1947 and served in both the Korean and Vietnam wars; he was a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star with oak leaf cluster, and the Purple Heart.

General Haig first spoke at one of our conferences when he gave a Special Address at the inaugural ceremony of the Federation for World Peace in August 1991. Before his prepared remarks, he offered the following comment:

This occasion gives me an opportunity to pay a belated debt of gratitude to the Reverend Moon, who at a time of great difficulty in my country, when confusion and animosity dominated the scene in the early 70’s, was a tremendous force for rule of law, for due process, and for brotherhood in my own country, and I am very, very grateful to you, Reverend Moon, for those contributions and for the continuing struggle that you have personally conducted in the interest of world peace and international brotherhood.

General Haig attended a number of other conferences of organizations founded by Rev. Moon, including the inauguration of the Youth Federation for World Peace, programs sponsored by the Washington Times Foundation, and the 1999 World Cultural and Sports Festival special convocation in Seoul on “Family Ethics and World Peace.” There, in an introduction to Rev. Moon, Haig described how their lives first intersected during the Korean War (in 1950, Haig was the aide to General Ned Almond, who commanded UN forces liberating northeastern Korea, which freed Rev. Moon from nearly three years in a North Korean prison camp in Hungnam; two months later, in Hungnam, Haig helped oversee the evacuation of UN forces and Korean civilian refugees fleeing Communist Chinese troops). Haig again praised Rev. Moon for his conciliatory approach during the Watergate crisis, and applauded his role in the downfall of communism.

People around the world deeply appreciated General Haig for the strength of his convictions and principles, and millions benefitted from his work and commitments which were not only for America but the world at large. Haig was a devout Catholic and his devotion to country, democracy, the rule of law, and family derived from his religious upbringing and life-long practice. His life and legacy were a gift of God to America and this troubled world.