Regarding Nixon's madman theory, Henry Kissinger is usually credited with ordering the alert in 1973 because Nixon was purportedly too drunk. Be that as it may, the conventional wisdom holds that the theory worked in this instance because it scared the Soviets into backing away from unilateral action. However, the man who was SACEUR and EUCOM commander at the time, General Andrew Goodpaster, told a different story. He said that the orders from the White House went even further than raising the alert level, but that he chose to disregard them. The Soviets could not have been oblivious to NATO's exercise of restraint on the ground, and thus concluded that the escalation was symbolic. Gen. Goodpaster suggested this as a case of reassurance rather than deterrence -- i.e., the opposite of the madman theory.