When President Ronald Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981, chaos ensued behind the scenes at the White House. With no real protocol in place for such a situation, everyone involved had to improvise and hope that everything would turn out right. In an attempt to keep everyone calm, Al Haig, Reagan's Secretary of State, committed a PR faux pas — and showed a glaring lapse in basic knowledge of the Constitution — by telling the press that he was in charge while the President was in surgery. Unaware of just how serious the President's condition really was, key officials began to do their best damage control and keep not only the reporters calm but the country and the world at large.
Philip Hughes, the Vice President's Deputy Foreign Policy Advisor, Samuel Gammon, the Executive Assistant in Management, and John Kelly, at the Secretariat at the Department of State, all watched the Haig incident unfold and tell their respective stories leading up to Haig's misinterpreted declaration of power. Hughes was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy beginning in August 1997. Gammon was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy beginning in February 1989. Kelly was interviewed by Thomas Stern beginning in December 1995.
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