Domino Theory Vietnam War

During the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential administration, both those policy makers who supported America’s involvement in Vietnam and those who opposed the war were part of the “containment generation.” They had reached political maturity during World War II and the early years of the Cold War and had experienced the intense anticommunism of the McCarthy era of the early 1950s. These leaders understood and applied the lessons of American nationalism, which had the primary message that the U.S. was the dominating nation that had to embrace its responsibility to aid and improve nations in America’s image. Therefore, when they saw that there was a threat of the spread of communism to areas of Southeast Asia, a majority of the

“In August of 1964, in response to the American and GVN espionage along its coast, the DRV launched a local and controlled attack against C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox , two American ships on call in the Gulf of Tonkin” (Brigham 2). This resulted in the United States government giving Lyndon Johnson the ability to make war under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. President Johnson then gave orders to perform air raids on Northern Vietnam pushing the United States further into the war. Compared to 1962 when only 9,000 soldiers supported the South Vietnamese, by June 1965 82,000 soldiers occupied the country. The number only continued to rise exponentially, and by 1966 370,000 soldiers had been sent in to prop their South Vietnam allies. President Richard Nixon withdrew American soldiers from Vietnam and as part of the “vietnamization” of the war. Over and 60,000 American soldiers had been lost in a war to preserve the status quo, not to win.

After Kennedy’s assassination, the country mourned and Lyndon B. Johnson assumed the presidency and began to finish the work that JFK started.

President Eisenhower called for the intervention in Asia to stop the domino effect of communism from spreading, even though Asia had "lost some 450 million of its peoples to the Communist dictatorship"(doc 4) as to protect the American economy (capitalism) and to avoid communism from spreading to the U.S.. The President showed that not only was the U.S. economy prepared for war, but the political leaders were ready to use the empowered army, brought on by the military-industrial complex, to fight a foreign war such as the Korean War. Conflict in the United States arose based on "hostility toward… specific nations, races, and religious groups"(Doc 2), and while the U.S. was helping it's foreign capitalist allies with it's mobilized economy, fears of communism influencing America created a large witch hunt. In court, citizens who loved the united states could be accused of being "a member of the communist party"(doc 3) which could end their careers and lives, however the mobilized industry being used to fight communism had to be clear of Communist Infiltration. The need for foreign intervention to contain and fight communism as well as domestic scares from communist influence and attacks led to the mobilization of the United States economy to fight any war and protect against any foreign influence.

The domino theory was defined as the held belief that if one communist country fell, neighboring communist countries would fall with it, and in turn, communism would eventually reach America and take over the world. This was theorized by American foreign policy advisors, but the phrase was popularized after Dwight D. Eisenhower’s use of it in one of his speeches. In this speech, he talked about the importance of American intervention in South Vietnam to allow the creation of a buffer country (South Vietnam), a country or state that stood between a potentially

Social and economic tensions were not the only things strained because of the war, political activities were on the brink as well. The Domino Theory, speculation that if one country takes another to communism, the surrounding countries will fall to it as well, was one of the main reasons for starting the war. If the Domino Theory had occurred, the United States would suffer a horrible loss to foreign affairs, something they were not able to handle at that time. When the affair in the Gulf of Tonkin happened in 1964, the U.S. government jumped on the idea to stop Vietnam. In the Gulf of Tonkin, a ship, the U.S.S. Maddox, was attacked by Vietnam patrol boats. Even though the Maddox was unhurt, the LBJ jumped on the opportunity to squash the Domino Effect before it started. Soon after the attack, Lyndon B Johnson got the ‘stamp of approval’ from Congress to counter attack. He was allowed to “Take all necessary measure to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” (Doc A) Little did they know that their

The Vietnam War loomed predominantly over three U.S. presidencies. When John F. Kennedy came to the presidency, he immediately inherited Dwight Eisenhower’s commitment to assist Saigon in its struggle

After John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson was immediately sworn in to take his place. Kennedy was killed at a crucial time in his presidency. Kennedy had recently killed off the Vietnam leader that the United States had put into power, Diem. Due to this and an overall increase in soldiers fighting, the combat in Vietnam was beginning to thicken more than it ever had. Lyndon B. Johnson was left with a lot on his plate, but he still maintained a strong belief to not “lose Vietnam.” Therefore, as the Viet Cong became more of a threat to our nation’s security, Johnson sent more troops to fight against the oppressive nature of communism.

In fact, remarkable similarities exist between the Korean War and the Vietnam War; from the US support of a dictatorial and corrupt anti-communist regime to its conception of communism as a monolithic entity, under which all communist nations were necessarily allies, rather than individuals to be dealt with separately. However, though those parallels, Vietnam era policy-makers did not apply the lessons of the Korean War to the Vietnam War. Rather, they did not seem to recognize those lessons as lessons at all, and repeated in

Johnson’s escalation in Vietnam was a defining moment of his presidency. Many things influenced him to escalate, including the cold war context, the advice from the working group, the weakness of the South Vietnamese Government, and protecting the US bases. I think that the main factor which influenced Johnson to escalate US Involvement was the advice given to him by the Working group because these were his closest and most trusted advisors.

On the 7th of April 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave one historic press conference [1]. In that conference, he announced his so called “Domino Theory”. It was a substantial aspect of the US involvement in the Vietnam War, involvement in terms of its military support and methods used in Vietnam. Even though it was greatly enhanced by other factors, such as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, it was the trigger, and therefore the source of all US involvement in the Vietnam War. The main rationale of the theory was that if one country fell down to communism, all the surrounding countries would do the same, hence why it was called the ‘Domino’ Theory. Eisenhower thought that Vietnam’s fall to communism would lead to consequential communist uprisings in neighboring countries, such as Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. He also that that it could possibly extend as far as India, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Australia and New Zealand -[1]. This gave The US enough motivation, and more importantly, justification as to why they greatly increased military presence in Vietnam. Eisenhower said, “The possible consequences of the loss [of Indochina] are just incalculable to the free world.” [2]. Even though the theory was imprecise, and only Laos and Cambodia joined communism after the US lost the war, it was significant as the foundation of the US involvement in the conflict.

In the year 1965, American government announced, with public support, that America is going to win the guerilla war and defeat the “global communist conspiracy”. It also promised to build free institutions in South-East Asia. Two years later, in the year 1967, the same affair was considered not only as unsuccessful, but also as a gruesome action of the politicians.

Did it? Not exactly. Europeans have a way of compensating what they've lost in wars by diplomacy. In a 1954 Paris accord that was hammered out, the country was partitioned across 17th parallel under the watchful eye of America and independence granted. North Vietnam came under Ho and communism. South was Democratic as guaranteed by America that found itself in the vacated shoes of the colonial French., propelled by Truman doctrine under which Americans assumed a global contract to save the world from Communism. This was the program that President Truman bought. He initiated the paper in April as “approved,” and NSC-68 (National Security Council Report 68) became the dominant guideline in our policy vis a vis the spread of communist power. It

---Fearing a communist takeover of the entire region, the United States grew more and more wary of the progress of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietcong. Communism had become the evil menace in the United States and with expansion of Soviet rule into Eastern Europe, Korea and

The Domino Theory was the idea that communism was an aggressive, expanding imperialism that would spread from one country to the next and shaped United States’ policy on Asia during the Cold War. The United States’ government used the “Domino Theory” to justify their support of a non-communist regime in South Korea against the communist government of North Korea. China became a communist state in 1949 and President Truman feared the next “domino” would be Korea. President Truman quantified, “If we let Korea down, the Soviets will keep right on going and swallow up one place after another.”