Domino Theory - 1954
The nature of dominos goes as follows: you place a series of dominos in a straightline, one in front of the other, equal distances apart from each other; then you push one domino over and that domino will fall onto the next domino in the sequence and very shortly your entire dominos fall over. This analogy was applied to Vietnam in 1954. On April 7 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a speech to warn the U.S. of the threat of communism in Vietnam. The national strategy of containment was the reason for America entering the Vietnam War. The plan was that the U.S. would stop communist aggression in Southeast Asia. This strategy was associated with The Domino Theory. Eisenhower likened Vietnam to a domino. The falling of the domino symbolized Vietnam falling to communism (virtually harmless to others if there are no other surrounding “dominos”). Richard Nixon also became a strong believer in The Domino Theory because he argued that if Vietnam became a communist nation then other countries such as Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia and even Indonesia would also be forced to accept communism. It would be difficult for the other countries to trade with Vietnam because they did not share the same economic system and since many countries depended on Vietnam for trade, it was only a matter of time before all of Southeast Asia fell to communism. As previously stated, The Domino Theory persuaded Americans to join the Vietnam War. America did not want communism, especially since it brought about corruption to Germany, Russia and Poland during WWII. The only alternative was to wage war. Through this idea of dominos and the decision to initiate war, America was able to grow stronger as a nation and an army; as well as diminish communism in Southeast Asia.
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