Domino Theory: Cold War Misconception About Communism's Spread

A popular belief among US politicians between the 1940s and 1970s, the Domino Theory suggested that communism was contagious and would spread to neighboring countries if not contained militarily.
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Today's Daily Dose short history film covers the domino theory, which was a western geopolitical belief that communism would spread throughout Indochina if the communists were not put down in Vietnam. The filmmaker has included the original voice over script to further assist your understanding:
Today on The Daily Dose, The Domino Theory of the Cold War.
Considered the primary impetus behind the Vietnam War, the domino theory was a Cold War misperception that when one nation embraced communist doctrine, then neighboring nations would succumb to the same fate, like dominos falling in a row. The theory gained increasing importance as war in Southeast Asia escalated from one American presidency to the next, resulting in a protracted, costly war for all sides involved.
In September of 1945, Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaimed independence from France, igniting a war between Minh’s communist Viet Minh regime in North Vietnam against the French-backed regime in the south. Under the Truman Administration, the U.S. government infused covert military and financial aid to the French-backed ARVN or Army of the Republic of Vietnam, under the rationale that a Ho Chi Minh victory would spread communism throughout Southeast Asia. The domino theory became so well engrained amongst American leaders, that The National Security Council highlighted the theory in a 1952 report on Indochina, while Truman invoked the same rationale when the U.S. funneled covert aid to Greece and Turkey in the late 1940s, in an attempt to curb the spread of communism in Europe and the Middle East. After President Dwight D. Eisenhower referenced the term domino theory in a speech, the phrase became a shorthand for the importance of driving communism out of Indochina, as well as the need for similar vigilance in other communist hotspots around the world.
The Vietnam War would continue to escalate until the Nixon Administration and the fall of Saigon in 1975, which in turn debunked the domino theory when communism failed to spread throughout Indochina as western leaders had originally feared. With the exception of Laos and Cambodia, the remaining nations of Southeast Asia remained outside the whelm and spread of communism.
And there you have it, Domino Theory explained, today on The Daily Dose.

[@DailyDoseDocumentary]

Do you think this theory lives on to this day for other political ideologies or agendas? Let us know below!

[@keithammleter3824]

I was in high school (in Australia) in the early 1960's. Australia participated in the Vietnam War with the US. When I was my last high school year, we were told that a class would be cancelled the next day, and all final year boys would be addressed by an officer from the Army. I told my father, who had served in the Army during World War 2 and was a political journalist. He of course realised that the Army visit was a recruitment drive, and we would most likely be sold the domino theory. He explained in great detail why it was bull dust.
Sure enough, we were lectured on the domino theory. The army chap claimed that if Vietnam fell, other south east Asian countries would fall one by one, and then the communists would attack Australia. That clearly was the most extreme lie - for a start it would require massive air and sea logistics which were simply not available to the communists. In any case, Communism grows out of hardship and Australia was a quite rich democracy. Communism had never taken root in an economically successful country (and still hasn't).
I asked the Army chap a lot of awkward questions and annoyed the hell out him - he simply hadn't prepared for a debate.
What the US Government never understood, but was plainly evident, was that after forced occupation by successive countries, culminating in the French for the second time after WW2, was that the Vietnamese (north and south) were thoroughly fed up and just wanted the foreigners out of their country. The appealed for help from the West but were ignored. So they asked the Chinese and Russians for help, and if that meant going communist, so be it. To the Vietnamese, it was either continued forcible domination by the French, or go communist - they saw communism as far lesser evil.

[@Americansikkunt]

You are inadvertently proving Domino Theory to be true (for a reason I hadn’t considered);
neighboring or weaker nations will naturally be taken over by the more powerful (Communist, or otherwise).
Also, I don’t mean to disparage,
but considering Communist ideology’s goal to affect every nation (“oppressed workers of any nation…”),
it is inherently expansive.

[@keithammleter3824]

@@Americansikkunt : You have made a couple of errors. Yes, it is true that weaker countries tend to taken over or controlled (by force or by economic stealth) by stronger neighbors. But China then did not have the wherewithal to do either. The countries between Australia and Vietnam were surrounded by sea, and China then did not have the ship transport, nor an effective long range airforce.
Chain does have the capability now, but the didn't then.
Your second error is in not distinguishing between early Soviet communism and Chinese communism. Historically the USSR has always been expansionist by any means, however at the end of World War 2 it was agreed between the principal allies Britain, USA, and USSR, that the world would be divided up into three spheres of influence, each controlled/dominated by one of them. They further agreed in effect that neither of the three would pursue expansion by force. That of course didn't work out well, because they split borders and didn't bother to consult the locals.
[It is interesting that today Putin still thinks that treaty is legally still in force, but the USA and Britain have forgotten it, thus he has a (false) reason for going to war against Ukraine.]
China under Mao was in desperate straights - after WW2 and the Long March, they were economically stuffed. Mao was just not interested in forced expansion - he knew he should get his own country sorted out first. It was quite a sacrifice for them to help Vietnam, but when Vietnam asked, Mao said ok. Kind of like loaning money to your brother when you don't have a job.
Australia was never at risk, and neither was its' neighboring countries. The domino theory was a nonsense dreamed up by the US government.
China today couldn't care less if any given country is communist or not. They just want everybody to be in dept to them and everyone buy their products, and until COVID they were succeeding. China is said to be communist, but compared to the old USSR, they are nothing like it.

[@machovalkarie7896]

They would regret it with the evil reeducation camps of commie north veitnam

[@EricPham-gr8pg]

It is true now as even spread all the way to Alaska and Washington dc and phillippines , indonesia and Thai lan too

[@nicholasheal5925]

Okay so Domino Theory proved to be wrong. But why? Why didn't it spread?

[@eliasaguilar8580]

There was some truth to domino theory. The popularity of communism in Indonesia led to a deadly genocide by the Indonesia government against communists. India had a ton of communist in their government.

[@yevgeniyzharinov7473]

Maybe it's because of our involvement in Vietnam that Communism didn't spread... The theory wasn't necessarily debunked.

[@Americansikkunt]

Perhaps you’re correct. And technically, you very well may be correct.
…My only stipulation is Communism has been re-branded multiple times (Critical theory, Feminism, Critical Race Theory, etc…),
and now affects every institution of every Western nation.
Critical Theory’s critiques of Capitalism have become the ideological religion of The West,
like “Feminism” and “Intersectionality”,
affecting everything in society from elementary school curriculum to federal printing of currency.
Taxation keeps increasing,
wealth is redistributed according to Marxist and Neo-
Marxist values (including race),
and each day more and more of The 45 Communist Goals for America come true….

[@keithammleter3824]

Communism did spread when certain countries outside the USSR and China decided themselves to try it, But they all failed. The USSR collapsed. True communism doesn't last - it doesn't work.
China has not failed - that's because they are pragmatic, and when something doesn't work, they change it. China today is said to be communist, but it is nothing like the old Soviet communism. They even have stock exchanges - completely wrong according to Marx. It is the classic example of how "communism" works and doesn't work. The USSR discovered that the people accumulated cash that did not aid development. They saw that stock exchange in the West mobilised money and drove development, but Marx said it was wrong, so they did nothing. But in China they had the same problem, noticed that stock exchanges fixed it, and they created stock exchanges.
The failure of communism to spread has everything to do with it being a dud theory, and nothing to do with suppression of the domino effect.

[@jakeg3126]

I was going to say same thing. We might've stopped one of the dominos in the set.

[@Americansikkunt]

@@jakeg3126 Communism went underground and re-branded….
The Marxists were exiles from Germany in 1930s,
fled to American universities,
and started calling their ideology “Critical Theory”
Now, decades later, EVERY US institution utilizes their Marxist values:
“Political correctness”,
“Social Justice”,
“White privilege”….
Heck, they even call it “The Long March Through the Institutions”!

[@infinite1483]

nahh just look at other countries

[@iROChakri]

America lost the Vietnamese war and now communism would take over Southeast Asia! RIP Vietnam. RIP Laos. RIP Cambodia. RIP Tha ...
Thailand: Hold my Muay thai