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military presence in Vietnam from a few thousand soldiers to more than 500,000 over the next five years. Johnson would continue to use the domino theory to justify the escalation of the U.S. Three weeks after Diem was murdered in a military coup in early November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas his successor Lyndon B. In 1963, after serious domestic opposition to Diem arose, Kennedy backed away from support of Diem himself but publicly reaffirmed belief in the domino theory and the importance of containing communism in Southeast Asia. resources in support of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime in South Vietnam and of non-communist forces fighting a civil war in Laos in 1961-62. Kennedy, Eisenhower’s successor in the White House, would increase the commitment of U.S. Involvement in Vietnam DeepensĪfter the Geneva Conference ended the French-Viet Minh war and split Vietnam along the latitude known as the 17th parallel, the United States spearheaded the organization of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), a loose alliance of nations committed to taking action against “security threats” in the region.

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“The possible consequences of the loss ,” Eisenhower said, “are just incalculable to the free world.”Īfter Eisenhower’s speech, the phrase “domino theory” began to be used as a shorthand expression of the strategic importance of South Vietnam to the United States, as well as the need to contain the spread of communism throughout the world. In Eisenhower’s view, the loss of Vietnam to communist control would lead to similar communist victories in neighboring countries in Southeast Asia (including Laos, Cambodia and Thailand) and elsewhere ( India, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and even Australia and New Zealand). “So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.” “You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly,” Eisenhower said.

Eisenhower articulated it as the “falling domino” principle: The National Security Council included the theory in a 1952 report on Indochina, and in April 1954, during the decisive battle between Viet Minh and French forces at Dien Bien Phu, President Dwight D. foreign policy officials had firmly embraced the idea that the fall of Indochina to communism would lead rapidly to the collapse of other nations in Southeast Asia. Using this same logic, Truman would also give aid to Greece and Turkey during the late 1940s to help contain communism in Europe and the Middle East. government provided covert military and financial aid to the French the rationale was that a communist victory in Indochina would precipitate the spread of communism throughout Southeast Asia.