11/9/2022 0 Comments Domino theoryRemarkably, the domino theory also has become part of jihadist doctrine. Decades after the Vietnam War, our national leaders are using the same discredited arguments to justify an expanded American presence in Iraq. While terming the clash "decisive," he asserts only that the "contagion of violence" "could" spill out of Iraq. Ike proclaimed with "certainty" that the "last" domino would fall if the first one did however, he also noted this to be a "possible sequence of events." Bush likewise hedges his words. Just as with Eisenhower, Bush's rhetoric is shot through with contradictions. Some ask: If it were so decisive why not use overwhelming force? And why continue to use force if the struggle is extra-military? In his State of the Union Address in January, Bush responded to such criticism: "In the long run, the most realistic way to protect the American people is to provide a hopeful alternative to the hateful ideology of the enemy - by advancing liberty across a troubled region." It is the decisive ideological struggle of our time." He echoes the words of Johnson and Eisenhower, declaring that the "challenge playing out across the broader Middle East is more than a military conflict. President Bush expands on this theory by calling for a drive to spread freedom and democracy throughout the Middle East. in an attempt to prevent a larger war - a war almost certain to follow, I believe, if the Communists succeed in overrunning and taking over South Vietnam by aggression and by force." As Johnson explained in 1967: "We have chosen to fight a limited war. you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences."Īdopted to justify the American entry into Indochina, this assumption underlay the rationales of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon in escalating the Vietnam War. "You have a row of dominoes set up," said Ike in 1954, "you knock over the first one and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. Born in the early Cold War years, under President Harry Truman, the domino theory found acceptance by his successor, general-turned-president Dwight D. Wartime presidents of both parties have historically recognized the value of domino theory and used it to support continued military intervention.Ĭonsider past precedents. Why make such a case today? Simple: it works. This reinforces an argument for sustained or escalated military involvement. More symbolic than analytical, it predicts that outcomes will be worse unless new actions are taken. It conflates present or past events with projection into the future. The domino theory, however, contains inherent flaws. For the safety of the American people, we cannot allow this to happen." In time, this violence could engulf the region. On March 19, Bush said: "If American forces were to step back from Baghdad before it is more secure, a contagion of violence could spill out across the entire country. The old, scuffed political theory of one domino falling and knocking down others turned up recently in President Bush's call for support from Congress for a surge in U.S.
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