Remembering Al Haig
The passing of former Secretary of State Alexander Haig on Saturday brings to mind a spring 1988 event hosted by the old Norwest Bank. Mr. Haig was the speaker at a gathering the bank hosted for 1,400 of its private banking customers in Minneapolis. I got to visit with Mr. Haig during a pre-event reception.
I remember that Lloyd Johnson, who was chairman, president and CEO of Norwest, presented Mr. Haig with a peace pipe as a memento of his trip to Minnesota.
Mr. Haig talked about the upcoming presidential election, in which then-Vice President George Bush was to run against Michael Dukakis. He also talked about the world political stage. Here is how I wrote about it in the May 7, 1988 edition of Commercial West:
Regarding the world economy, he said the world is shifting from polar domination to multipolar domination. “By the year 2000 the United States and the Soviet Union will not dominate the world as they do now,” he said. By the middle of the 21st century, he added, China and India will enter the class of Super Powers.
Al Haig was an early Republican candidate for president in that 1988 campaign. By the time of the Norwest event, he had dropped out. Someone asked if he would ever run for president again and he responded “never say never.”
