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Domino theory

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The domino theory was a United States political theory advanced by both liberal and conservative Americans during the Cold War, especially regarding Indochina. It asserted that if one country were taken over by Communists, neighboring countries would fall like dominoes, in a form of imperialist expansion of the Soviet Union.

Contents

Background

The theory had a precedent, of sorts: the Eastern Bloc. At the end of World War II, the Stalinist Soviet Union tried to starve West Berlin into submission during the Berlin Blockade, maintained tight control over East Germany, and mentored the rapid rise to power of totalitarian Communist regimes in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. A totalitarian Communist regime also arose in Albania under Enver Hoxha, but without explicit Soviet assistance.

In Asia, Soviet forces occupied Manchuria at the end of World War II, and then expanded military aid to allow the Communists under Mao Zedong to regain control over China during the final stages of the Chinese Civil War from 1946 to 1949.

On June 25, 1950, Soviet ally Kim Il-Sung of North Korea launched an invasion of South Korea. The United Nations agreed to defend South Korea, and the crisis escalated into an explicit confrontation against the Chinese and Soviet military in the Korean War.

The aggressive momentum of this expansion of Communism in Europe and Asia echoed the swift and steady progress Nazi Germany had achieved just years earlier, first with its conquest of Poland, followed rapidly by conquests of Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

Moreover, the Soviet Union had armed itself with technical knowledge about the atomic bomb using information from its espionage network that included Klaus Fuchs embedded in the Manhattan Project, Donald Maclean and the Cambridge Five, and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. The detonation of a Soviet atomic bomb on August 9, 1949, and a Soviet hydrogen bomb on August 12, 1953, raised alarms that Soviet expansion and Stalinist-style domination would be unstoppable.

Birth of a theory

The Domino Theory was first espoused by President Eisenhower in an April 7, 1954 news conference[1], and was originally applied to Indochina, which includes Vietnam. If Communists aided by the Soviet Union succeeded in conquering Indochina, Eisnehower argued, they would then successively conquer Burma, Thailand, and Indonesia. This would give them a geographically strategic advantage, from which they would be able to conquer Japan, Formosa, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand.

The theory was actively embraced by his successors, presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon.

Controversy

Many opponents of intervention in Vietnam thought the theory was highly exaggerated. After the DRV took over in 1975, Laos and Cambodia also "went Communist," prompting some to conclude the domino theory had been vindicated. Others pointed out that Laos had been dominated by North Vietnam for years and that Cambodia's Khmer Rouge were enemies of the Vietnamese. Richard Nixon once said that the strongest argument for the domino theory was that the "dominos believed it," and indeed there were often fears in countries that bordered communist nations that their governments were in danger of subversion. This fear led to policies such as the NATO alliance and other forms of containment, dedicated to protecting non-communist nations from "falling."

Some leftist academics, notably the controversial Noam Chomsky, believe that the "real domino theory" is that if one country successfully developed itself into a successful socialist state independent of foreign interference, other countries would follow by example. Chomsky called this the "threat of a good example" and believes it is the main reason for American intervention in otherwise insignificant countries such as Cuba, Guatemala, East Timor, and Angola. This theory has been criticized for downplaying the influence of the Soviet Union in the Third World.

Modern times

The domino theory has been renounced by many of its original advocates, but continues to be used as an argument for military intervention. Today it is often applied in the United States to refer to the potential spread of both Islamic theocracy and liberal democracy in the Middle East. During the Iran-Iraq War the United States and many other western nations supported Iraq, fearing the spread of Iran's radical theocracy throughout the region. The United States also supplied arms to Iran during this conflict, in what was to be known as Irangate. In the 2003 invasion of Iraq, American neoconservatives argued that by invading Iraq a democratic government could be implemented, which would then help spread democracy across the Middle East.

See also: Domino effect, Truman Doctrine


Last updated: 01-18-2005 08:28:58