Description
Book SynopsisWas Richard Nixon actually a madman, or did he just play one?
When Richard Nixon battled for the presidency in 1968, he did so with the knowledge that, should he win, he would face the looming question of how to extract the United States from its disastrous war in Vietnam. It was on a beach that summer that Nixon disclosed to his chief aide, H. R. Haldeman, one of his most notorious, risky gambits: the madman theory.
In On Nixon''s Madness, Zachary Jonathan Jacobson examines the enigmatic president through this theory of Nixon''s own invention. With strategic force and nuclear bluffing, Nixon attempted to coerce his foreign adversaries through sheer unpredictability. As his national security advisor Henry Kissinger noted, Nixon''s strategy resembled a poker game in which he push[ed] so many chips into the pot that the United States'' foes would think the president had gone crazy.
From Vietnam, Pakistan, and India to the greater Middle East, Nixon ap
Trade Review
Brilliant, insightful, beautifully written . . . the audacious originality of On Nixon's Madness is a truly impressive feat.
—Times Literary Supplement
Jacobson is an astute observer and a graceful writer. This brings one of America's most enigmatic presidents into sharper focus.
—Publishers Weekly
Table of Contents
Introduction
PART ONE: ON ACTING
1. The Acting Life of Richard Nixon
2. The Sentimental Life of Richard Nixon
Interlude
3. The Working Life of Richard Nixon
PART TWO: ON MADNESS
4. The Madness in the Act: The First Campaign
Interlude
5. The Madness in the Mind: Rage and Conspiracism in the President
Interlude
6. The Madness in Play: The Use of the "Madman Theory" in Foreign Policy
The Madness in Control: To China and the "Indefinite Shore"
Conclusion
