Did you ever hear of the Domino Theory... the Domino Theory is horseshit.
No it was not. The theory was that if we let South Vietnam be taken over by the communists then other south east asian nations would be taken over. And Laos and Cambodia did fall to the communists and the result was a tremendous reign of death. I'm sure you have heard of the "killing fields". Other countries may have fallen if not for our aid our intervention. Sure the most wild and crazy exaggerations of the domino theory (like the idea that if South Vietnam goes half of the world will follow it) were horseshit but so are most wild and crazy exaggerations. The decision makers who got us in to Vietnam didn't believe them.
Tim, I don't think you understand the scope of the Domino Theory............Indochina was only one of the dominoes to fall. See the link to an interview with Pres. Eisenhower circa 1954:
coursesa.matrix.msu.edu
The President.
You have, of course, both the specific and the general when you talk about such things.
First of all, you have the specific value of a locality in its production of materials that the world needs.
Then you have the possibility that many human beings pass under a dictatorship that is inimical to the free world.
Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling \cf2 domino\cf0 " principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.
Now, with respect to the first one, two of the items from this particular area that the world uses are tin and tungsten. They are very important. There are others, of course, the rubber plantations and so on. Then with respect to more people passing under this domination, Asia, after all, has already lost some 450 million of its peoples to the Communist dictatorship, and we simply can't afford greater losses.
But when we come to the possible sequence of events, the loss of Indochina, of Burma, of Thailand, of the Peninsula, and Indonesia following, now you begin to talk about areas that not only multiply the disadvantages that you would suffer through loss of materials, sources of materials, but now you are talking really about millions and millions and millions of people.
Finally, the geographical position achieved thereby does many things. It turns the so-called island defensive chain of Japan, Formosa, of the Philippines and to the southward; it moves in to threaten Australia and New Zealand. It takes away, in its economic aspects, that region that Japan must have as a trading area or Japan, in turn, will have only one place in the world to go -- that is, toward the Communist areas in order to live. So, the possible consequences of the loss are just incalculable to the free world.
EDIT. It sounded so reasonable and logical; yet, we were incapable so stopping the fall of Vietnam but still the rest of Asia did not go to the communists. All the pain and suffering in that war to satisfy the demands of a stupid theory.
I suspect we really were more concerned about our sources of rubber and tungsten than we were about he freedom of the Asians. We keep getting fed a crock in the name of freedom.
Its pitiful!!
ted |
