Nixon’s Vietnam strategy appears at play in Trump’s Iran threats, but he may want to ponder the ex-president’s fate
Donald Trump has made no secret of his admiration for Richard Nixon, Watergate and leaving office in disgrace be damned.
But the president has taken his tribute act to new levels in threatening to erase Iran as a civilization, only to step back from the brink when the Tehran regime agreed – at a price – to reopen the economically vital strait of Hormuz.
The template is Nixon’s “madman theory” of diplomatic engagement – shorthand for prompting your adversaries to doubt your sanity and mental instability to the point where they are intimidated into otherwise unlikely concessions.
Nixon expounded on the idea to his future White House chief of staff Bob Haldeman in the incongruous setting of a walk on the beach beside the Pacific Ocean in 1968 before he was elected president, suggesting it might end the war in Vietnam.
