How The Domino Theory Backfired

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

They speculated that "if one land in a region came under the influence of Communism, the surrounding countries would follow in a domino-like effect". (Small) So basically, once one country turns to Communism, all the surrounding countries will follow until it has taken over completely. This theory was used by U.S administrators during the Cold War to clarify and justify the need for American intervention around the world. The idea had been in existence for quite some time, but it was only clear what it really was when President Dwight D. Eisenhower put it into words in 1954, when referring to communism.

Due to pressure, humiliation and great losses of troops, the strain was clearly beginning to show and in the same year, the French pulled out of the war. When China fell to Communism in 1949, the US treated the Chinese with suspicion as they believed that they would try to spread communism and consequently, they feared that the whole of south-east Asia would turn communist, country by country. The dominant idea in the US foreign policy was the 'Domino Theory', strongly upheld by President Truman, which outlined their fear of the whole of south-Asia falling to

It is after World War II. Germany was split into 4. And Later West Germany and East Germany. West is capitalist and East is communist. The USA and USSR both have a different way of economy. Now the USSR wants to spread communism across the world. Now we all know that the USA eventually won and stopped most of communism by 1991. But this begs the question, If the USA failed containment, would the domino theory be correct?

Domino theory- linked to the policy of ‘containment’. President Eisenhower (and his secretary of state, JF Dulles) believed that China and the USSR were looking to spread communism throughout Asia. It was called the ‘Domino Effect’ because if Vietnam became communist,

In the time period of 1945-1952 a superpower threatened the US called the USSR with the ability to have both MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction and the threatened spread of communism this took place in the Cold War. Before the Cold War, WW2 was coming to an end the Yalta conference had granted the Soviet Union all the land they had traveled to get to Germany causing the Soviet Union to take most of Eastern Europe for themselves. Later on in the Potsdam conference Stalin promised that communism will take over the world and president Truman declared war on USSR thus beginning the Cold War. The Truman Doctrine did contain communism in Europe and Korea. The Doctrine did contain communism by, The Marshall Plan, The Berlin Airlift, and The Korean

Communism was everything was the property of the government and people earned pay based on their abilities and needs. The United States did not agree with this kind of idea they felt that the citizens of the United States should be given a lot more freedom and to be able to own items. The United States had been in the Cold War, which was the war between socialism and communism, for some bit of time. The United States believed they were losing the cold war and needed to contain communism. This lead to a decision being made if the U.S. should join the Vietnam War. Many people, such as president John F. Kennedy spoke about their views on communism. John F. Kennedy explained how, “Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both”(1). The United States despises communism and felt that it needed to take action against the problem. The domino theory was just as equally important in what scared the United

Johnson ordered a Working group from the defence Department, the State Department, the CIA, and the JCS to study Vietnam and suggest policy options. The Working Group said that an independent and anti-Communist South Vietnam was vital to America. During the Cold War many of the foreign policy analysts subscribed to "The Domino Theory" — which contended that should one country come under communist rule, its neighbours were likely to follow suit. Johnson thought that America would have to take a stand and that if they didn’t, then the American prestige would be at stake. Johnson listened to the working group as they were considered “the best and the brightest” – there were very few voices against what they had to say.

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.

The 1960’s were a tumultuous period in the United States as well as across the world. The chaos was very apparent, to the United States, because of the spread of communism. Communism is a type of government that defies many of the values that American stands for. Likewise, communism was the government of the USSR, America’s enemy in the Cold War. As a result, the spread of communism was viewed as a threat to the livelihood of the United States. It was theorized that communism would continue to diffuse until it was prevalent in all countries; this theory was known as the Domino Theory.

The Vietnam War’s initial purpose seemed to be clear: to destroy and prevent the spread of Communism to Vietnam and neighboring nations. This notion was backed by the belief that Communism’s spread was similar to falling of dominoes. The belief was named the “Domino Theory”, as Communism spread to one country; each neighboring country would fall to the clutches of Communism, one by one like toppling

If we look at how the 1929 stock market crashed cause a domino effect in the economic world of the United States (Martin, 2014 p.30). Thousands of people who had thought they had a secure life, found themselves without a job, food, shelter, and it was a large wake-up call for sociality (Martin, 2014 p.30). Therefore, president Hoover develop the country’s first federal social welfare (Martin, 2014. p.30). During Roosevelt term his most important change was in the federal policy, that social welfare was meant to be a minimum of living as a right, and not as a privilege (Martin, 2014

You might wonder what the Domino theory had to do with the cold war? The cold war nation was born of the domino theory which held , if one of our neighboring countries fell under communist influence or control we would soon follow ( U.S History ).The U.S. got involved with the domino theory

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.”

“The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in 1947 by George F. Kennan, the article impacted and created a different perspective on the spread of Communism and the Soviet Union. Kennan’s philosophy behind stopping Communism from spreading was through containment, even though the telegraph did not have the word containment in it. The Truman Doctrine was established and the number of Presidents that viewed war in foreign soil. Kennan continued to fight Communism and had inputs and theories on other conflicts to include Vietnam and Korea.