Quote Originally Posted by Richard Nixon
"I call it the Madman Theory, Bob. I want the North Vietnamese to believe I've reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war. We'll just slip the word to them that, 'for God's sake, you know Nixon is obsessed about Communism. We can't restrain him when he's angry -- and he has his hand on the nuclear button' -- and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace." H. R. Haldeman, The Ends of Power
I recently read about Nixon's and Kissinger's 'madman theory'.

During the cold war, nuclear strategic doctrine was riven by a fundamental contradiction. Governments thought it sensible to threaten nuclear war--the better to "deter" a foe from doing something unwanted--yet it obviously made no sense actually to wage nuclear war, for this led to the famous "mutual assured destruction." But if carrying out the threats was senseless, then how could it be frightening? What use were they? Wouldn't the foe, supposing that no country would be demented enough to "assure" its own destruction, disbelieve the threats and do what it pleased in spite of them?

The high strategists of nuclear defense scratched their heads and came up with answers. One was to take technical and other steps that deliberately put your nation on what the strategist Thomas Schelling called a "slippery slope." That is, if you visibly arranged to make yourself a little bit out of control, the foe would no longer be able to imagine that you might desist from nuclear war in a last-minute fit of sanity. They'd think that you might plunge into the abyss in spite of yourself. And so they would fear you, as hoped.
North Korea's Kim Jong Il seems to have reinvented it. And is Bush Trying Out the Madman Theory too?

Playing 'Madman theory' is either incredibly stupid or bloody brilliant. I seriously can't make up my mind.

But the great thing about 'madman theory' is that it could explain Bush' behaviour so perfectly well.
To play it convincingly, you have to be a fantastic strategist of great intelligence. Or you must be a genuine complete nutter.
Though I'm confused as to whether that leaves the right, the left, or both correct in their assesment of him.

So is Bush playing it? And is playing it the right course to take when dealing with Iran and other threats?