Alexander Haig Quotes
That's not a lie, it's a terminological inexactitude.
Haig was generally not terribly eloquent but he was very well read. “Terminological inexactitude” was coined by Winston Churchill. See {625509} .
Alexander Haig, U.S. Secretary of State (Republican), White House Chief of Staff, Army General, Defending himself against accusations of lying in 1983
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Some politicians have subsequently used the phrase. For example, see {625508} .
See {115604} for a similar sentiment from England.
Armstrong observed that the notion was not original with him but with Edmund Burke. See {610721}.
The Presidential Campaigns of 2008 and 2012 shocked many Americans for the blatant lies that opponents of President Obama wrote and broadcast and then some of the retaliatory lies that Obama defenders responded with. However, this quotation from a 19th century political historian shows us that blatant lying in American politics is not at all new.
The secretary was responding to a reporter who had dramatically paraphrased what the secretary had said and asked if this would be correct.
After the invasion, much of the intelligence upon which America relied on Invading Iraq turned out to be completely wrong. It turned out that the Vice President at least, a major supporter of the invasion, had a role in “shaping” the intelligence and analysis to achieve a policy objective.
One classic example was the fact that in 2012 about one third of Republicans believed that President Obama was a Muslim when he was a devout Christian. The infamous lie had 3 grains of truth: Obama’s father was a Muslim. his middle name was an Islamic name. and he had lived and gone to school as a young boy in Indonesia, the largest Islamic country.
The then CIA Director, Allen Dulles, fostered a practice of “adjusting” intelligence reports to support ideological policies and theories that were then in vogue. The agents in the field knew what was wanted and many adjusted their reports to coincide with the overall intelligence and policy. The station chiefs and other supervisors often ignored reports of their agents that they knew were not exactly accurate. Copeland however, just fabricated reports and “information” from sources. The honesty and integrity of the CIA intelligence operations have varied from time to time and depended much on the CIA Director at the time. Allen Dulles, though brilliant and able, fostered an ideological intelligence agency. He even went so far as to lie to the President on several occasions.
- Born: December 2, 1924
- Died: February 20, 2010
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Public Servant
Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. was the United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and the White House chief of staff under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior to these cabinet-level positions, he retired as a general from the United States Army, having been Supreme Allied Commander Europe after serving as the vice chief of staff of the Army.
