dictatorship that is inimical to the free world. Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the
Talling domino' principle. 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. So
you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound
influences.... [With respect to more people passing
under this domination, Asia, after all, has already lost some 450 million of its
peoples to the Communist dictatorship, and
we simply can't afford greater losses. But when we come to the possible sequence of
events, the loss of Indochina, of Burma, of Thailand, of
the Peninsula, and Indonesia following...now you are talking really about
millions and millions and millions of people."
-President Eisenhower's News Conference, April
7,
1954
How did the "domino theory referenced by President Dwight D. Eisenhower influence President Richard Nixon's approach to
international relations with Southeast Asia?
OA. President Nixon gravitated toward a policy of détente with the Soviet Union to ease Cold War conflicts with the Soviets
and their Communist allies in Southeast Asia.
OB. President Nixon pledged to resurrect harmonious relationships with China so that Mao Zedong could help contain the
spread of Communism in Southeast Asia.
OC. President Nixon ordered the formal evacuation of U.S. troops and their Vietnamese allies from Southeast Asia following
the Communist invasion of Laos.
OD. President Nixon ordered covert U.S. bombing campaigns in Cambodia and Laos to help stop the spread of Communism
in Southeast Asia.