Retired General David Petraeus said President Donald Trump was employing a precarious method by using the “madman” strategy to deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Petraeus, who commanded U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan and served as CIA director under former President Barack Obama, explained the strategy could be effective until it became disastrous, Business Insider reported Friday.
Petraeus was speaking at the Intelligence Squared debate at New York University and explained there could be some “merit” to the “madman” strategy, although in a crisis it could “go too far.”
The “madman” theory is a negotiating strategy that keeps the opposing party “off balance” by exhibiting inconsistency, Petraeus explained.
“Don’t push — don’t push this into a crisis,” he said, echoing words of Henry Kissinger, secretary of State under former President Richard Nixon, who used similar tactics in dealing with North Vietnam and Russia.
Petraeus said Kissinger would
