Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in order to serve as White House Chief of Staff for President Richard Nixon during the depths of the Watergate crisis, was abruptly installed as SACEUR after Watergate's denouement. Haig arrived in 1974. Some scattered notes about his time at SHAPE are recorded by Colodny and Shachtman's book "The Forty Years War". A creature of habit, Haig took the same route to SHAPE every day – a pattern of behavior that did not go unnoticed by terrorist groups. On June 25, 1979, Haig was the apparent target of an assassination attempt in Mons, Belgium. A land mine blew up under
Gustave Fourreau - Major) on July 1, 1959. He was assigned to the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion 13 DBLE on four different occasional tours. The first assignment was at Bougie on July 22, 1960, on August 10, 1960, on November 3, 1960, then on November 17, 1961. He was then nominated to the 1st Mounted Chasseur Groupment () at Reims. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-colonel, on October 1, 1964. In October, he was nominated to the Command of the general staff headquarters of Supreme Allied Armed Forces () in Europe, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe SHAPE.