 After Reagan won the 1980 presidential election, he nominated Haig to be his secretary of state.After the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, Haig asserted "I am in control here," allegedly suggesting (erroneously since 1947, when the Speaker of the House of Representatives was designated the second in the line of succession after the Vice President) that he served as acting president in Reagan's and Bush's absence, later iterating that he meant that he was functionally in control of the government.During the Falklands War, Haig sought to broker peace between the United Kingdom and Argentina.