Domino Theory - Communism

.

April 1954, April 7: Eisenhower ‘domino theory’ spread of communism - HiPo > .

> Vietnam >>

24-4-6 Vietnam: Hx, USA-Xina Relations, SXS, economy - gtbt > .

By the middle of the 1950s American fears of the global spread of communism were being realized. In China the Communist Party had taken control, while the Korean War had ended with an armistice that split the country in two and with a communist in the government in the north. In Indochina, better known as Vietnam, France had struggled to regain colonial control in the aftermath of the Second World War. By 1954 they were facing imminent defeat against the Vietnamese nationalists under communist Ho Chi Minh, something that the American government feared would provide communism with a springboard into Southeast Asia.

 
America had already adopted the Truman Doctrine, in which it committed to support anti-communist groups, and at a news conference on 7 April 1954 Eisenhower laid the groundwork for US involvement in Vietnam. He began by explaining how the country held economic importance for America, and how there was the threat of a dictatorial takeover. He concluded his argument by explaining what he called the ‘falling domino principle’ in which he likened the spread of communism in Southeast Asia to a row of dominoes quickly collapsing after the first one falls.

Within a month of the news conference French forces had lost the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and, at the subsequent Geneva Conference, they agreed to leave Vietnam and divide the country at the 17th parallel. Although Eisenhower’s speech consequently had little immediate effect, it laid the foundations for America’s later involvement in Vietnam as both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson used the domino theory to justify their intervention.