Apparently Nixon is the President that Trump most admires and he has spoken to his aides about adopting Nixon’s madman theory. Let your enemies think that you’re a crazy son of a bitch and capable of anything. Nixon used to say to his representatives at the Vietnam peace talks (I paraphrase), “Tell them that you’ve had to hold me back from nuking them and blowing them all to hell to settle this thing for once and all. Say that you don’t know how much longer you can restrain me.”
The theory was that his opponents would be so worried about what he might do that they’d be quicker to compromise. As I said, Trump is much taken with this idea. But did it actually work in practice? Is there any evidence that foreign leaders were actually influenced in their decisions by fear of Nixon’s instability? And if there is, could it really work for Trump too? (He certainly has the world jittery at the moment so they could well believe that he had an itchy trigger finger.)
The notion of Nixon’s Madman Theory even being a thing is questionable. Nixon was a politician and statesman of very long standing, which everyone knew,when he become President and used his political capital to engage in peace efforts. Nixon could say all day long he was nuts, but it’s not like anyone didn’t know who he was.
As to whether or not such an idea would work, I must point out that the quote you refer to was said in 1969. Seeing as how the war did not end for years afterwards,* it was obviously not an effective approach.*
Agreed. Since Nixon had a long history of government service, including as Ike’s vice president and then running for president a couple of times, it seems far-fetched that anyone would conclude Nixon was a temper tantrum away from ending the world. Especially in light of his foreign policy moves such as signing the first SALT treaty with the Soviets and going to visit Mao in China.
But more importantly, widespread speculation that Trump is utilizing this “madman” theory and is not so crazy or unpredictable in actions as opposed to words (somewhat similarly to Philippine President Duterte at least on the foreign policy side so far and not his murderous domestic policies), will completely undermine any actual fear or intimidation of that “madman” policy. It’s like seeing the man behind the curtain - the Wizard isn’t that scary anymore.