~Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, came up with the name and helped formulate the policy of 'brinksmanship' (per Dulles, ';The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art.';) Vietnam is but one of the places Dulles and his brother got to play dominoes.
During the Eisenhower years, it became vogue to label anything and anyone that was not pro-American to be either despotic, tyrannical, communist or, most frequently, all of the above. Dulles believed, and said more than once, ';neutrality has increasingly become an obsolete and, except under very exceptional circumstances, it is an immoral and shortsighted conception.'; Thus, anyone not with us was against us.
Before Pearl Harbor, FDR supported a nationalist Vietnamese freedom fighter named Ho Chi Mihn and his nationist partisan guerrilla force, the Viet Mihn, with money, equipment, supplies, arms, intelligence and 'advisors' in their struggle for Independence against the Vichy French and Japanese. That support was one of the provocations and violations of US claimed and feigned neutrality that led the Japanese to believe they had no recourse but to try to take out the US military presence in the Pacific by attacking Pearl. Support for Ho and company continued when the US officially became involved in the war. However, at Yalta and Potsdam, FDR sold out the Vietnamese people by agreeing with Churchill and Stalin that after the war, Vietnam would be partitioned into North and South with the UK occupying the South and Nationalist China occupying the North. Mao defeated the Nationalist Chinese, taking them out of the equation, then aided the North. France wanted her Indochina Empire back. The UK was having enough trouble in the British Mandate of Palestine and in 1946, with the blessings of HST and the US, gave it to them. That second sell-out of the independence movement in Vietnam served to enhance the popularity of Ho increased the ranks of the Viet Mihn. To be sure, many Viet Mihn were communists. Many others were not. They were nationalists who wanted their nation reunified and independent.
The Viet Mihn defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. By the Geneva Accords of 1954, free, internationally supervised elections were to be held in 1956 to reunify the country. The French warned Ike to not get involved because the Viet Mihn were a superb guerrilla force that could not be beaten and because the will of the Vietnamese people and their desire for reunification and independence was not going to be suppressed. By this time, Ho was something of a Vietnamese George Washington and he was going to win a fair election in a landslide in the South as well as in the North.
Given the Eisenhower/Dulles philosophy, the will of the Vietnamese people was not going to be heard. Ike got involved. The French warned Ike to avoid Ngo Dihn Diem because he was a corrupt, incompetent madman. Ike ordered CIA to back Diem and get him in power in the South. That was done and Diem went on a killing spree of his political enemies. Ike ordered CIA and the US military to protect him. Ho's popularity mushroomed again, and there was another massive influx into the Viet Mihn from both North and South. When 1956 rolled around, Diem refused to allow the elections, knowing Ho would trounce him at the polls. Ike joined in the refusal. New groups like the Viet Cong and the NLF sprang out in opposition to Diem and his US puppetmasters. The elections were never held.
The US had engendered much good will in Indochina during WWII. It was squandered at Potsdam and Yalta, in 1946, in 1954 and in 1956. The Vietnamese people were now very anti-American and US support of a barbaric tyrant like Diem was gasoline on the fire. The rest is history.
During the Eisenhower years, under the misguided doctrines preached by Dulles and Ike, the CIA made sure dominoes wouldn't fall. They toppled their own dominoes instead. Just about anyplace a government popped up that was cool to the US (and US business interests), no matter how just, no matter how reformist, no matter how egalitarian, it was toppled by the US and the CIA and generally replaced with an iron handed killer who oppressed his people if he didn't murder them, but who was friendly to his US sponsors. Examples of coups staged during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years by, supported by or planned by CIA, according to US government and CIA records, are:
Guatemala, 1954, Arbenz replaced by Armas
Nicaragua, Augusto Sandino is murdered, Juan Bautista Sacasa is forced to flee and Anastasio Somoza seizes power. (the Dulles boys investments in the United Fruit Company in Nicaragua and Guatemala are preserved.)
Iran, 1954, Mohammad Mosaddeq is deposed and replaced with Shah Reza Pahlahvi. CIA creates and trains SAVAT. Angol-Iran oil assets are preserved and the US is guarateneed bargain basement petoleum prices.
1963, a six man hit team put together and trained by CIA, including Saddaam Hussein, murders president Abdul Karim Kassim (Ouasim). Eventually, with CIA help, Saddaam assumes power. More oil for the US.
1963, the US finally realizes that backing Diem might not be such a productive thing and JFK authorizes CIA to help take him out. Equally viscious mobsters like Nguy峄卬 Cao K峄?#039; then later Nguyen Van Thieu are substituted in his place and stead. In spite of local oppostion to the US and to the war and in spite of local demand for elections and reunification, the war is enabled to continue for another decade.
1959/60, Fidel Castro threatens to nationalize United Fruit Company assets so as to bring labor and economic reform to Cuba. US policy towards Cuba chills. The USSR steps in with aid and support. Castro is on the hit list and Vice-President Richard Nixon devises the Bay of Pigs invasion after several attempts to assassinate Cuba fail. JFK is elected and told of the plans. He advises CIA and the Joint Chiefs that he will not authorize US naval or air power to support the invasion. They neglect to tell him that their on estimates project that the invasion will fail without such support or that the Soviets, thus Castro, are aware of the details including times, dates and landing sites. CIA proceeds with the invasion, which is a fiasco.
Meanwhile, Ike and JFK have parked US nuclear missiles in Turkey which are aimed at and within range of Moscow and other prime USSR targets. Khrushchev requests then demands the missiles be removed. Kennedy refuses. Castro and Khrushchev agree to put missiles in Cuba. Then Khrushchev offers to remove them immediately on the promise that the JFK pull his out of Turkey within 6 months and further promises to not invade Cuba and to stop trying to kill Castro.
Other presidents have also followed suit:
1979, CIA organizes and trains Islamic fundamentalists to foment insurgency in Afghanistan, causing Afghanistan to request military aid from her Soviet allies. The insurgents bring about the fall of the Afghan government. Many of the insurgents are from the successful movement that has recently deposed the Shah (after a generation of trying and in spite of SAVAT and CIA) and seized the US embassy. One of the insurgent factions is led by a guy named Osama bin Laden. During the insurrection, the insurgents are collectively named Taliban.
1970, CIA backs the overthrow of Sihanouk in Cambodia. Sihanouk joins a marginal fringe group called the Khmer Rouge. Membership in Khmer Rouge explodes due to the popularity of Sihanouk amongst the Cambodian people. In 1979, Cater National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski convinces the Chinese to support Pol Pot and the Thai to support the Khmer Rouge, because, as he said, ';I (Brzezinski) encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot. I encouraged the Thai to help the Khmer Rouge. The question was how to help the Cambodian people. Pol Pot was an abomination. We could never support him. But China could.'; Result, Khmer Rouge slaughter as much as 25% of the Cambodian population.
There are many more similar examples of the domino theory in action but this is already to long. Essentially, the theory said in practice, ';Let's do it to them first because we say they're going to do it to us, and anyway, since they're not with us they must be evil and against us';. Relations between the US and countless governments soured as a direct result of implementation of the domino theory and hundreds of millions of average Joe citizens around the globe became anti-American (some, like bin Laden, rabidly so) because they were aware of what Uncle Sam had done in their own countries or those of their neighbors, and what had become of them and their lives and their freedoms and justice as a result.
Hold the thumbs until you do the research. Everything in this posting is supported by US government documents and declassified CIA records which are available to you online with just a little effort.How does the domino theory apply to the Vietnam War?
The domino theory states that, if we learn to play dominoes in Vietnam, then we won't have to deal with the Chinese.How does the domino theory apply to the Vietnam War?
Domino theory that communism would spread from one country to another was the main reason the U.S. got involved in Vietnam.
