America in Vietnam and The Domino Theory essays

America in Vietnam and The Domino Theory essays The theory most discussed during the Vietnam era seems to have been the so-called domino theory. This theory held that if one small nation fell to Communism, then so would its neighbors. The theory was a linchpin of high-level government discussions as early as 1954, when Secretary of State John Foster Dulles used it in a press conference on May 11 of that year. It was still apparently thought to be a cogent argument when President John F. Kennedy spoke about Cuba to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 20, 1061. The theory lent support to the arguments, therefore, of both Republicans and Democrats. There is, moreover, some reason to believe that the theory is in fact a somewhat adequate explanation of events; its obverseturning Communist states into states with representative governments, happened all over eastern Europe In terms of Southeast Asia, however, the possibility of governments falling like dominoes was sufficient excuse for U.S intervention. In his May 11, 1954 press conference, Secretary Dulles made clear that while no single one of the at-risk nationsVietnam, Laos or Cambodiacould alone initiate the fall of Southeast Asia, neither was the U.S. going to walk away from the region (Lewy, 1978, p. 163) to test the theory. Four years ago, the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon was commemorated in The Nation by a writer who is apparently a Thai national, or at least, has Thai ancestry. Thailand was one of the nations U.S. military engagements, in the name of the domino theory, was supposed to protect. In fact, the U.S. did not much care who did what to whom, as long as there were no Communists involved. As Chokchaimadon pointed out, "Supported by the United States, South Vietnamese governments were set up to counter communist North Vietnam; simultaneously, they also used their...