The Korean
War showed the American government that the communist threat was
not restricted to Europe. Two regions in particular, appeared vulnerable
to communism, Indo-China and Latin America. Indochina had been colonized
by the French in the late 19th Century but
had been lost to Japan during the Second
World War. Resistance groups set-up to fight the Japanese often
contained supporters of the communist party and after the allied victory
in 1945, France attempted to reestablish control. Western governments
feared that if France was unsuccessful in this, communism might spread
throughout the whole of South East Asia.
The same reasoning was
applied to Latin America after guerrilla fighters, under the leadership
of Fidel
Castro, overthrew
Fulgencio Batista, the right-wing dictator
of Cuba in 1959.
To justify his support
for South
Vietnam, President
Dwight
Eisenhower and
Vice-President Richard
Nixon put forward
the 'domino theory. It was argued that if the first domino is knocked
over then the rest topple in turn. Applying this to South-east Asia
he argued that if South Vietnam was taken by communists, then the
other countries in the region such as Loas, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma,
Malaysia and Indonesia, would follow.
John
F. Kennedy was
elected president of the United States in November, 1960. In the first
speech he made to the American public as their President, Kennedy
made it clear that he intended to continue Elsenhower's policy of
supporting Ngo
Dinh Diem and
his South Vietnamese government. He argued that if South Vietnam became
a communist state, the whole of the non-communist world would be at
risk. If South Vietnam fell, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Philippines, New
Zealand and Australia would follow. If communism was not halted in
Vietnam it would gradually spread throughout the world. Kennedy
went on to argue: "No other challenge is more deserving of our
effort and energy... Our security may be lost piece by piece, country
by country." Under his leadership, America would be willing to:
"pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any
friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty."
(1)
Konrad Adenauer,
Memoirs 1945-53 (12th July, 1952)
I had become more and
more firmly convinced that Stalin had always intended
to get hold of West Germany with as little destruction as possible.
His policy of the
first post-war years had not brought the result he wished, but I was
convinced that the Soviet Union had not given it up. If Stalin were
to succeed in gaining
control in the Federal Republic without too much destruction, he would
then be able to exercise a decisive influence on France and Italy,
countries whose political order was not very firm and where there
were strong communist parties. Soviet dominance in the Federal Republic,
France, and Italy would make Soviet Russia into the strongest economic,
military, and political power on earth. It would mean the victory
of communism in the world, including the United States. My policy
has always been informed by the conviction that this is the goal of
Soviet Russia.
If Russia should succeed
in including Western Germany in the Soviet system, it would mean such
an access of economic and war potential that Russia would gain a preponderance
over the United States. Russia would certainly respect
the American atomic striking force until she herself possessed enough
atom bombs. In January
1949 the Soviets had for the first time succeeded in exploding
an atom bomb. Soviet Russia would probably refrain from an attack
until a balance had been reached in atomic production. Then, however,
it might happen that
neither Russia nor the United States would use that weapon,
as was the case with poison gas which both sides in the last war possessed
in equal measure so that both sides were careful not to use it. Once
an atomic balance
had been reached, land armies and air forces might become the
decisive factors.
(2)
Vice-president
Richard Nixon, speech, (December,
1953)
If Indochina falls, Thailand is put in an almost impossible position.
The same is true of Malaya with its rubber and tin. The same is true
of Indonesia. If this whole part of South East Asia goes under Communist
domination or Communist influence, Japan, who trades and must trade
with this area in order to exist must inevitably be oriented towards
the Communist regime.
(3)
H. W. Baldwin, New York Times Magazine, (February 21,1965)
Vietnam is a nasty place to fight. But there are no neat and tidy
battlefields in the struggle for freedom; there is no 'good' place
to die. And it is far better to fight in Vietnam - on China's doorstep
- than fight some years hence in Hawaii, on our own frontiers.
(4)
Professor George Kahin, speech (15th May, 1965)
Those who still are impressed by the simplistic domino theory must
realize that non-communist governments of Southeast Asia will not
automatically collapse if the Communists should come to control all
of Vietnam. So long as Southeast Asian governments are in harmony
with their nations' nationalism, so long as they are wise enough to
meet the most pressing economic and social demands of their people,
they are not likely to succumb to Communism.
(5)
Theodore Draper, Abuse of Power (1967)
The Latin American dominoes did not fall after Castro's victory (in
Cuba) because the world is far more complex and unpredictable than
the theory gives it credit for being. Castro's growing force immediately
set in motion counterforces throughout Latin America, not sponsored
by the United States alone, which was most ineffective, but in the
domestic policies of each Latin American country... The Cuban experience
does not prove that the Latin American dominoes could not have fallen;
it merely proves that Castro's victory by itself was not enough for
them to fall.
(6)
President John
F. Kennedy, interview (1963)
I believe there is no country in the world . . . where economic colonisation,
humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, partly as a
consequence of U.S. policy during the Batista regime. I believe that,
without being aware of it, we conceived and created the Castro movement,
starting from scratch. I also believe that this accumulation of errors
has put all Latin America in danger. The whole purpose of the 'Alliance
for Progress' (an economic aid programme for Latin America) is to
reverse this fatal policy.
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