Alexander Haig died on Saturday at 85. He was U.S. secretary of state to Ronald Reagan, chief of staff to Richard Nixon and was NATO commander under Gerald Ford. Remembered for helping Nixon prepare a defense during the Watergate scandal in 1973 and for his well-meaning reaction to the shooting of Ronald Reagan in 1981. “As of now, I am in control here in the White House, pending the return of the vice-president.” He wasn’t. Haig, a general, served in the army for 20 years before he came to the White House in 1968. He had been ill—and died of complications from an infection in Baltimore.