The Domino Theory

The United States believed that it was their responsibility to contain Communism. They wanted to stop the spread of communism across the world. They saw that Vietnam as the start of the spread of Communism so it contributed as one of the reasons of going to war. The Domino theory was a theory that if one country in a region falls to Communism that the surrounding countries would fall to communism as well. The U.S. also saw the Domino Theory in Vietnam.

Before his time in office, the tension was escalating between the North and the South of Vietnam. The North supported Communism and wanted to spread it out to the South and all of Southeast Asia. A war started from this tension but America's involvement came later. Once America had realized the North’s intentions, they feared that Communism would spread over to America and the idea of their Democratic society being taken over by Communism scared them the most. America had to intervene so they decided to support the South.

In regards to the line of action LBJ took in relation to foreign policies, there were many controversies amongst the masses. When LBJ first started his first term as the president of the United States, he took things slowly, and fought communism in Vietnam from afar .The Vietnam War led students create various movements to protest against being drafted in the war. Moreover, most of the American citizens were discontent with how tardy and sluggish the government changes were, and they were frustrated with the issues the Vietnam War brought. Due to the opposition’s strong persistence, LBJ decided to change his ploy.

Many Americans post-world war II were afraid of the spread of communism because of their belief in the domino theory, if one country falls then the rest will too. Under external and internal pressures such as the failure of the Potsdam conference Harry Truman adopted a foreign policy during the early years of the cold war ( the late 40’s) called containment. The objective was to stop the spread of communism around the world by creating military alliances such as NATO ,and providing aid to unstable/weak countries through the Marshall Plan. Unfortunately, like many other U.S foreign policies it was effective at times, but also dreadfully ineffective. In order to combat the continuous spread of communism, Truman passed the Truman doctrine, which allowed for foreign intervention in countries affected by Communism.

“Communist rule in Vietnam...would be repressive and antidemocratic..”(Farber,140). Communist rule will not be nice and beneficial to Vietnam, that is the wrong view of Communism. Their oppressive government needs to be overthrown, just like how the British were to the Americans. They got their peace and freedom through fighting. The Domino theory is if Vietnam becomes a Communist country, the rest of the dominos will fall (Farber,122).

To the Americans, this was not a trivial border dispute between two parties somewhere on the map. Instead, they feared that it was the first step in a communist campaign to take over the world - they believed that should one country fell to communism, then others would follow, much like a domino effect. Hence, it is in US’s stance to intervene in this conflict, as per their containment policy. (In fact, in April 1950, the NSC-68, a National Security Council report, had recommended that the US use military force to “contain” communist expansionism “regardless of the intrinsic strategic or economic value of the lands in

Laotians were fighting against the Americans and resisting them. They feared the unknown. This reason was most likely why the villagers attempted to attack Dengler and ended up killing Duane. Even though these events did not occur in Vietnam, Laos was a neighboring country.

The United States got wrapped up in this war because they wanted to prevent communism spreading to different areas in the world. As stated above, one of the sources of media used was the

America’s fear of communism stretched beyond the western hemisphere; the Domino Theory became popular in the 1960s as the Vietnam War was increasingly seen as a threat to democracy in Asia. The Domino Theory is the belief that a communist victory in one nation would start a “chain reaction of communist takeovers in neighboring states. ”(Domino Theory) In the Vietnam War, this theory was used as a justification for American involvement. Communism, as understood by the American people, was a threat to peace and liberty.

It is known as the Second Indochina Conflict by history specialists since battling additionally occurred in Cambodia and Laos. North part of the country (Vietnam) was under the socialist government and South part of the country wasn 't. Ho Chi, the pioneer of the North part, needed to spread socialism in the entire Vietnam, joining North part of the country (Vietnam) and South area. The pioneers of the South area restricted the spread of socialism. The United States took the side of South area, getting the conflict an alternate level. Therefore, the real reasons for the Vietnam Conflict incorporate three causes.

The War consisted of three significant groups. The United States Government was allied with the Contras, despite their record of human rights infringements, in order to take down the communist party, the Sandinistas. The Contras were allied with United States to eliminate the Sandinista Government for the betterment of Nicaragua. The Sandinistas opposed both the United States and the Contras because they had a previous disposition to the United states and they felt that socialistic policies was the best way to develop Nicaragua. The current settings of the Nicaraguan Revolution, was that of turmoil and unrest in Central America with multiple countries such as Cuba turning to Communism as a new type of government.

The 1950’s through the 1970’s was a time filled with hardship for many Americans because of the ineffective invasion of Vietnam. In a completely unreasonable manner, the United States attempted to end communism in Vietnam, by investing an exceedingly large amount of money on war materials and losing plenty of lives, only to fail; the U.S., filled with pride, became involved in the war completely oblivious of the North Vietnamese military force and should not have entered the war until they were aware of the forces of China and the Soviet Union (allies of North Vietnam). In 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower sent advisors to Vietnam to train the South Vietnamese soldiers in order to battle against the North Vietnamese forces. Then, Eisenhower delivered a speech1, The Domino Theory, giving Americans his opinion on Southeast Asia’s future if the U.S. overlooked the communism occurring in Vietnam. Eisenhower stated that if Vietnam was not under any influence by the United States, communism would spread from one country to the next, resulting in the entire southeast becoming communist.

Vietnam operates as a paradox in the minds of Americans. There were those who fought, were injured and died for America. Effects of Vietnam Then you have those who were against the war.

Truman was in favor of containment, simply keeping North Korea north of the 38th parallel. Seeing this, MacArthur overstepped his bounds and openly criticized the President. Truman promptly had him removed. During this time there were other alternatives preferred by different politicians in Washington. Isolationism, detente(a form of friendliness that just ignores the problem), and rollback, which was what MacArthur favored.

Kennan proposed that the United States aid in the development of democratic countries by giving them economic and political support, military equipment and training, and also waging war against communist regimes if necessary. Rebels would be given support so that they could overthrow the ruling communist governments. Kennan 's ideas were heavily criticized by newspapers, but his idea of blocking the expansion of Soviet influence remained a key interest and main strategy of the United States throughout the Cold War. Containment was first used during the Korean War in which NATO forces intervened and fought off North Korean and Chinese forces from taking over all of Korea and creating a communist government. The Korean War ended