From the article: "Madness. Or more particularly, the ‘Madman Theory,’ drives the story I’m about to tell. The ‘Madman Theory,’ that psycho-political strategy, Machiavelli machinated over while writing the Discourses on Livy exactly five hundred years ago, is precisely the same make-believe that famous finagler President Richard Nixon tried to hoist on Ho Chi Min during the Vietnam War. Earnestly, Nixon simulated madness, as a political gambit to force the North to the peace conference table. To be clear, there were others who, at the time, hardly believed Nixon was simulating. And now, with the newest Oval Office resident, a few see ‘Machiavellian-faux madness’ budding anew within the Presidency – especially in his dealings with North Korea – while growing numbers wonder if any of it is indeed an act."