The theory most discussed during the Vietnam era seems to have been
             the so-called domino theory. This theory held that if one small nation
             fell to Communism, then so would its neighbors. The theory was a
             linchpin of high-level government discussions as early as 1954, when
             Secretary of State John Foster Dulles used it in a press conference on May
             11 of that year. It was still apparently thought to be a cogent argument
             when President John F. Kennedy spoke about Cuba to the American Society of
             Newspaper Editors on April 20, 1061. The theory lent support to the
             arguments, therefore, of both Republicans and Democrats. There is,
             moreover, some reason to believe that the theory is in fact a somewhat
             adequate explanation of events; its obverseâ€"turning Communist states into
             states with representative governments, happened all over eastern Europe
             In terms of Southeast Asia, however, the possibility of governments
             falling like dominoes was sufficient excuse for U.S intervention. In his
             May 11, 1954 press conference, Secretary Dulles made clear that while no
             single one of the at-risk nationsâ€"Vietnam, Laos or Cambodiaâ€"could alone
             initiate the fall of Southeast Asia, neither was the U.S. going to walk
             away from the region (Lewy, 1978, p. 163) to test the theory.
             Four years ago, the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon was
             commemorated in The Nation by a writer who is apparently a Thai national,
             or at least, has Thai ancestry. Thailand was one of the nations U.S.
             military engagements, in the name of the domino theory, was supposed to
             protect. In fact, the U.S. did not much care who did what to whom, as long
             as there were no Communists involved. As Chokchaimadon pointed out,
             "Supported by the United States, South Vietnamese governments were set up
             to counter communist North Vietnam; simultaneously, they also used their...