JFK+50: Volume 6, No. 1975
DOMINO THEORY DEBUNKED BY CIAWashington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-two years ago today, June 9, 1964, the Central Intelligence Agency responded to President Lyndon B. Johnson's question, "Would the rest of Southeast Asia necessarily fall if Laos and South Vietnam came under North Vietnamese control?"
The CIA's answer challenged the argument known as the "Domino Theory" which said that if one nation in Southeast Asia were to fall to the communists, then all the other nations in the region would follow.
The Agency told President Johnson that the only nation likely to fall in such a scenario posed by LBJ's question would be Cambodia.
The CIA made the argument that while the fall of South Vietnam and Laos would be a blow to American interests in the region, it was also likely the Philippines and Japan would deter further communist aggression or expansion in Southeast Asia.
The History Channel adds...
"The American failure to prevent a communist victory in Vietnam had much less of a global impact than had been assumed by the Domino Theory."
While both South Vietnam and Cambodia fell to the communists after 1975, the other Southeastern Asian nations did not.
SOURCE
"Domino Theory," www.history.com/
Illustration of the Domino Theory
Beao (2011)
