Haig's Coup: How Richard Nixon's Closest Aide Forced Him from Office

When General Alexander M. Haig Jr. returned to the White House on May 3, 1973, he found the Nixon administration in worse shape than he had imagined. President Richard Nixon, reelected in an overwhelming landslide just six months earlier, had accepted the resignations of his top aides—the chief of staff H. R. Haldeman and the domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman—just three days earlier.

Haldeman and Ehrlichman had enforced the president’s will and protected him from his rivals and his worst instincts for four years. Without them, Nixon stood alone, backed by a staff that lacked gravitas and confidence as the Watergate scandal snowballed. Nixon needed a savior, someone who would lift his fortunes while keeping his White House from blowing apart. He hoped that savior would be his deputy national security adviser, Alexander Haig, whom he appointed chief of staff. But Haig’s goal was not to keep Nixon in office—it was to remove him.

In Haig’s Coup, Ray Locker uses recently declassified documents to tell the true story of how Haig orchestrated Nixon’s demise, resignation, and subsequent pardon. A story of intrigues, cover-ups, and treachery, this incisive history shows how Haig engineered the “soft coup” that ended our long national nightmare and brought Watergate to an end.
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Haig's Coup: How Richard Nixon's Closest Aide Forced Him from Office

When General Alexander M. Haig Jr. returned to the White House on May 3, 1973, he found the Nixon administration in worse shape than he had imagined. President Richard Nixon, reelected in an overwhelming landslide just six months earlier, had accepted the resignations of his top aides—the chief of staff H. R. Haldeman and the domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman—just three days earlier.

Haldeman and Ehrlichman had enforced the president’s will and protected him from his rivals and his worst instincts for four years. Without them, Nixon stood alone, backed by a staff that lacked gravitas and confidence as the Watergate scandal snowballed. Nixon needed a savior, someone who would lift his fortunes while keeping his White House from blowing apart. He hoped that savior would be his deputy national security adviser, Alexander Haig, whom he appointed chief of staff. But Haig’s goal was not to keep Nixon in office—it was to remove him.

In Haig’s Coup, Ray Locker uses recently declassified documents to tell the true story of how Haig orchestrated Nixon’s demise, resignation, and subsequent pardon. A story of intrigues, cover-ups, and treachery, this incisive history shows how Haig engineered the “soft coup” that ended our long national nightmare and brought Watergate to an end.
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Haig's Coup: How Richard Nixon's Closest Aide Forced Him from Office

Haig's Coup: How Richard Nixon's Closest Aide Forced Him from Office

by Ray Locker
Haig's Coup: How Richard Nixon's Closest Aide Forced Him from Office

Haig's Coup: How Richard Nixon's Closest Aide Forced Him from Office

by Ray Locker

Hardcover

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Overview


When General Alexander M. Haig Jr. returned to the White House on May 3, 1973, he found the Nixon administration in worse shape than he had imagined. President Richard Nixon, reelected in an overwhelming landslide just six months earlier, had accepted the resignations of his top aides—the chief of staff H. R. Haldeman and the domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman—just three days earlier.

Haldeman and Ehrlichman had enforced the president’s will and protected him from his rivals and his worst instincts for four years. Without them, Nixon stood alone, backed by a staff that lacked gravitas and confidence as the Watergate scandal snowballed. Nixon needed a savior, someone who would lift his fortunes while keeping his White House from blowing apart. He hoped that savior would be his deputy national security adviser, Alexander Haig, whom he appointed chief of staff. But Haig’s goal was not to keep Nixon in office—it was to remove him.

In Haig’s Coup, Ray Locker uses recently declassified documents to tell the true story of how Haig orchestrated Nixon’s demise, resignation, and subsequent pardon. A story of intrigues, cover-ups, and treachery, this incisive history shows how Haig engineered the “soft coup” that ended our long national nightmare and brought Watergate to an end.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781640120358
Publisher: Potomac Books
Publication date: 05/01/2019
Pages: 456
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author


Ray Locker is the former Washington enterprise editor at USA Today, where he directed investigative reporting out of the Washington bureau. His work as a reporter and editor has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes. He is the author of Nixon’s Gamble: How a President’s Own Secret Government Destroyed His Administration.
 
 

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments
Introduction: “I Am in Control Here”
1. The Making of Alexander Haig
2. May 1973, the General Returns
3. June 1973
4. July 1973
5. August 1973
6. September 1973
7. October 1973
8. November 1973
9. December 1973
10. January 1974
11. February 1974
12. March 1974
13. April 1974
14. May 1974
15. June 1974
16. July 1974
17. August 1974
18. After Nixon
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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