Billmon: The Flight Forward

For those who don't want to believe the United States is seriously preparing to attack Iran, a favored explanation for the current war chatter is that it's nothing more than a textbook case of saber rattling – or, once the alleged threat to use tactical nuclear weapons is added to the mix, an example of the so-called "madman theory" in action.

I've been planning to post something on the madman theory for several days now, but Fred Kaplan at Slate has long since beaten me to the punch. So I'll let him review the origin of the term:

In his first few years as president, Richard Nixon tried to force North Vietnam's leaders to the peace table by persuading them that he was a madman who would do anything to win the war. His first step, in October 1969, was to ratchet up the alert levels of U.S. strategic nuclear forces as a way of jarring the Soviet Union into pressuring the North Vietnamese to back down. A few years later, he stepped up the bombing of the North and put out the word that he might use nukes.