The Falling Domino Theory: Why the US fought in the Vietnam War

The Falling Domino Theory: Why the US fought in the Vietnam War

Courtesy MS Office

In order to understand why the US was in Vietnam you have to understand the Falling Domino Theory or domino theory for short. A lot of media sources claim the domino theory was a myth.

Let’s take a look at the situation in the late 40’s and early 50’s when the US first got involved in Vietnam against Ho Chi Minh and the communists. I say against Uncle Ho because in 1945 the US supplied Ho Chi Minh with weapons and supplies for his (then) 200-man army to fight against the Japanese.

Major Patty & Ho Chi Minh

As instructed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), Major Patty of the OSS promised Ho that the French would not be allowed to reclaim Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos; Thailand was an independent kingdom).

Courtesy FDR Library

To enforce that promise, FDR told the French they could not have Vietnam back because they lost their own country in two wars (so far in the 20^th century) so they ought to worry about getting France together and not worry about re-conquering their colonies.

Unfortunately, FDR died in office and Vice President Truman, who had only been in office 80 days when he became President, did not know, or did not care about FDR’s promise. French General de Tassigny was sent by General De Gaulle to Washington to take advantage of the situation. So France was allowed to return to Vietnam at the end of World War II[1].

Courtesy History.com

So that briefly explains how the alliance between Ho Chi Minh and the United States was broken. It didn’t help that Uncle Ho was totally snubbed when he went to Washington to appeal to President Truman about FDR’s promise to keep France at home.

Courtesy National Archives

Fast-forward to March/April 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, at a news conference explained the “falling domino” principle. Following WWII nation after nation fell under the influence of what Churchill called the Iron Curtain, (communism)[2].

Stalin consented, in Yalta, to permit supervised free, secret ballot elections in Eastern Europe, but “the US was unprepared to prevent Russian expansion after World War II”[3].

Courtesy 4bp.blogspot.com

Courtesy incakolanews.blogspot.com

With a large standing Soviet army, “a communist minority seized power by outlawing major parties, exiling and imprisoning opposition leaders, controlling the press, and rigging elections Maneuvering swiftly with determination, the communists seized power in Eastern Europe before the West had the ability or will to react”[4].

In 1949 after Congress cut funding to Chang Kai Shek, the Communist Mao Zedong, encompassed another 450 million people into the Communist world.

Mao Courtesy Marxist.org

“Chinese Communist Party leader Lui Shaoqi, in a widely reported speech at an international trade union congress held in Beijing, announced that the new People’s Republic of China (PRC) would provide active assistance to national liberation movements in neighboring countries. He specifically mentioned the struggles in Indochina and Malaya” (p. 89).[5]

Mao and the Chinese “openly endorsed national liberation movements”. They stepped up their support of the aggression in Southeast Asia. Indeed they promote that aggression by all means short of open invasion[6].

 Courtesy  Emersonkent.com

Soviets bragged that communism was a world revolution. Everyone in 1960 with access to a new fangeled television saw Khrushchev pound the podium with his fist as the translator stated “We will bury you by 1980”[7].

I won't bore you with the pages and pages of similar quotes I could add, but the point is that the Communists wanted to control the world and that fact is well documented.

Part 2 explains that Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were not the only dominoes, continues in a couple days ...

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[1] MacLear, Michael (1981). The Ten Thousand Day War: 1945-1975. NY: St. Martin’s Press.

[2] John Foster Dulles (1888-1959), speech to Overseas Press Club (New York, March 29, 1954) Department of State Bulletin, April 12, 1954: America Should Consider Direct Military Intervention in Indochina, pp. 39.

[3] Joiner, H. M., (1977). American Foreign Policy: The Kissinger era. Huntsville, Alabama: The Strode Publishers Inc, p. 230.

[4] Ibid, p. 230

[5] Duiker, W. J., (1994). U.S. Containment Policy and the Conflict in Indochina. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, p. 89.

[6]  McNamara, R. S., (1995). In Retrospect: The tragedy and lessons of Vietnam. New York: Times Books, p. 30. & John Foster Dulles (1888-1959), speech to Overseas Press Club (New York, March 29, 1954) Department of State Bulletin, April 12, 1954: America Should Consider Direct Military Intervention in Indochina, p. 40.

[7] Khrushchev later stated that this was mistranslated. However, even if that were true, the voting public did not know that.