An illustration of the domino theory as it had been predicted in Asia

The domino theory was a reason for war during the 1950s to 1980s, promoted at times by the government of the United States, that speculated that if one state in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. The domino theory was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to clarify the need for American intervention around the world.

Referring to communism in Indochina, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower put the theory into words during an April 7, 1954 news conference:

Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling 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.

History[link]

In 1945, the Soviet Union brought most of the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Europe under its influence as part of the post-World War II settlement, prompting Winston Churchill to declare in a speech in 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri that:

Following the Iran crisis of 1946, Harry Truman declared what became known as the Truman Doctrine in 1947, promising to contribute financial aid to Greece and Turkey following World War II, in the hope that this would impede the advancement of Communism into Western Europe. Later that year, diplomat George Kennan wrote an article in Foreign Affairs magazine that became known as the "X Article", which first articulated the policy of containment, arguing that the further spread of Communism to countries outside a "buffer zone" around the USSR, even if it happened via democratic elections, was unacceptable and a threat to U.S. national security. Kennan was also involved, along with others in the Truman administration, in creating the Marshall Plan, which also began in 1947, to give aid to the countries of Western Europe (along with Greece and Turkey), in large part with the hope of keeping them from falling under Soviet domination.

In 1949, China became a Communist country (officially the People's Republic of China) after Chinese Communist rebels defeated the Nationalist Republican government in the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War (1927~1949). Two Chinas were formed - mainland 'Communist China' (People's Republic of China) and 'Nationalist China' Taiwan (Republic of China). The takeover by Communists of the world's most populous nation was seen in the West as a great strategic loss, prompting the popular question at the time, "Who lost China?"^[1]

Korea had also partially fallen under Soviet domination at the end of World War II, and in 1950 fighting broke out between Communists and Republicans that soon involved troops from China (on the Communists' side), and the United States and 15 allied countries (on the Republicans' side). The war has not officially ended to this day but the fighting ended in 1953 with an armistice that left Korea divided into two nations, North Korea and South Korea.

In March 1954, the Viet Minh, a Communist and nationalist army, defeated French troops and took control of what became North Vietnam. This caused the French to fully withdraw from the region then known as French Indochina, a process they had begun earlier. The region now comprised four independent countries: North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

President Eisenhower was the first to refer to countries in danger of Communist takeover as dominoes, in response to a journalist's question about Indochina in an April 7, 1954 news conference, though he did not use the term "domino theory".^[2] If Communists succeeded in taking over the rest of Indochina, Eisenhower argued, local groups would then have the encouragement, material support and momentum to take over Burma, Thailand, Malaya and Indonesia; all of these countries had large popular Communist movements and insurgencies within their borders at the time.

This would give them a geographical and economic strategic advantage, and it would make Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand the front-line defensive states. The loss of regions traditionally within the vital regional trading area of countries like Japan would encourage the front-line countries to compromise politically with communism.

Eisenhower's domino theory of 1954 was a specific description of the situation and conditions within Southeast Asia at the time, and he did not suggest a generalized domino theory as others did afterward.

The John F. Kennedy administration intervened in Vietnam in the early 1960s to, among other reasons, keep the South Vietnamese "domino" from falling. When Kennedy came to power there was concern that the communist-led Pathet Lao in Laos would provide the Viet Cong with bases, and that eventually they could take over Laos.

Arguments in favor of the domino theory[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The primary evidence for the domino theory is the spread communist rule in three Southeast Asian countries in 1975, following the communist takeover of Vietnam: South Vietnam (by the Viet Cong), Laos (by the Pathet Lao), and Cambodia (by the Khmer Rouge). It can further be argued that before they finished taking Vietnam prior 1950s, the communist campaigns did not succeed in Southeast Asia. Note the Malayan Emergency, the Huk Rebellion in the Philippines, and the increasing involvement with Communists by Sukarno of Indonesia from the late 1950s until he was deposed in 1965. All of these were unsuccessful Communist attempts to take over Southeast Asian countries which stalled when communist forces were still focused in Vietnam.

Walt Rostow and Lee Kuan Yew have argued that the U.S. intervention in Indochina, by giving the nations of ASEAN time to consolidate and engage in economic growth, prevented a wider domino effect. McGeorge Bundy argues that the prospects for a domino effect, though high in the 1950s and early 1960s, were weakened in 1965 when the Indonesian communist party was destroyed. However, proponents ultimately believe that the efforts during the containment (i.e. Domino Theory) period, ultimately led the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

Some supporters of the domino theory note the history of communist governments supplying aid to communist revolutionaries in neighboring countries. For instance, China supplied the Vietminh, the North Vietnamese army, with troops and supplies, and the Soviet Union supplied them with tanks and heavy weapons. The fact that the Pathet Lao and Khmer Rouge were both originally part of the Vietminh, not to mention Hanoi's support for both in conjunction with the Viet Cong, also give credence to the theory. The Soviet Union also heavily supplied Sukarno with military supplies and advisors from the time of the Guided Democracy in Indonesia, especially during and after the 1958 civil war in Sumatra.

Noam Chomsky, a linguist, writes that he believes the Domino theory is roughly accurate, although he put a more positive spin on the threat, writing on the basis that economy improvements to a poor country will always bring better life for its people. If a people in a poor country see another poor country dictate its economy and improve it, the former will of course want to emulate the latter. This is why, he claims, the US put so much effort into suppressing so-called "people's movements" in Chile, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Laos, Grenada, El Salvador, Guatemala, etc. "The weaker and poorer a country is, the more dangerous it is as an example. If a tiny, poor country like Grenada can succeed in bringing about a better life for its people, some other place that has more resources will ask, 'Why not us?'" Chomsky refers to this as the "threat of a good example."^[3] Chomsky claims there are two domino effects, one internally discussed between US policy makers, which is that of the "Good Example", and another for public consumption, that of the spread of Communism.

Arguments against the domino theory[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The primary evidence against the domino theory is the failure of Communism to take hold in Thailand, Indonesia, and other large Southeast Asian countries after the end of the Vietnam War, as Eisenhower's speech warned it could. However, proponents of this policy argue that this was due in part to the effects of both the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Critics of the theory charged that the Indochinese wars were largely indigenous or nationalist in nature (such as the Vietnamese driving out the French), and that no such monolithic force as "world communism" existed. There was already fracturing of communist states at the time, the most serious of which was the rivalry between the Soviet Union and China, known as the Sino-Soviet split, which began in the 1950s.

Indeed, Vietnam and Cambodia were at odds from the very beginning. Rivalry between China and the USSR may have exacerbated tensions between them, since Vietnam had affiliated itself with the USSR and Cambodia with China, but nationalism and territorial disputes were obviously more significant factors. Border conflicts, mostly in the form of massacres of Vietnamese peasants carried out by the Khmer Rouge, occurred frequently for the duration of their nearly four years in power, eventually leading to the Cambodian-Vietnamese War of 1978-1979, when Vietnam overthrew the Khmer Rouge and took control of Cambodia. This in turn led China to attack Vietnam in 1979 in the brief Sino-Vietnamese War, and to U.S. and Thai support for the Khmer Rouge, who renounced communism and continued to fight as a guerrilla force against the Vietnamese-backed government until the mid 1990s.

In the cases of both Laos and Cambodia, the adoption of communism was directly attributable to the Vietnam War, which had spread over the borders of Vietnam into these countries, and to Vietnam's political regional ambitions, which included directly organizing communist parties in both countries. The fall of Laos was essentially due to repeated outright invasions by Vietnam and the inability of the army of Laos to defend the country. The fall of Cambodia had more complex causes but ultimately also resulted from the country being dragged into the Vietnam war, first by the Viet Cong who operated bases in the country and used it as part of the Ho Chi Minh trail, and then by full scale NVA attack, in conjunction with the Khmer Rouge, against the pro-U.S Lon Nol republic. The U.S. and South Vietnamese forces also contributed to widening of the war when they invaded and heavily bombed Cambodia in an attempt to root out those bases, causing an upsurge of popular resentment^{[citation needed]}

Opponents also argued that the domino theory misrepresented the real nature of the widespread and growing civil opposition that the previous, U.S.-backed regimes in these countries had generated because of entrenched official corruption and widespread human rights abuses, notably in South Vietnam.

Applications to communism outside Southeast Asia[link]

Michael Lind has argued that though the domino theory failed regionally, there was a global wave, as communist or Marxist-Leninist regimes came to power in Benin, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola, Afghanistan, Grenada, and Nicaragua during the 1970s. The global interpretation of the domino effect relies heavily upon the "prestige" interpretation of the theory, meaning that the success of Communist revolutions in some countries, though it did not provide material support to revolutionary forces in other countries, did contribute morale and rhetorical support.

In this vein, Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara wrote an essay, the "Message to the Tricontinental", in 1967, calling for "two, three ... many Vietnams" across the world.^[4] Historian Max Boot wrote, "In the late 1970s, America's enemies seized power in countries from Mozambique to Iran to Nicaragua. American hostages were seized aboard the SS Mayaguez (off Cambodia) and in Tehran. The Red Army invaded Afghanistan. There is no obvious connection with the Vietnam War, but there is little doubt that the defeat of a superpower encouraged our enemies to undertake acts of aggression that they might otherwise have shied away from."^[5]

In addition, this theory can be further bolstered by the rise in terrorist incidents by left-wing terrorist groups in Western Europe, funded in part by Communist governments, between the 1960s and 1980s.^[6][7][8] In Italy, this includes the kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, and the kidnapping of former US Brigadier General James L. Dozier, by the Red Brigades.

In West Germany, this includes the terrorist actions of the Red Army Faction. In the far east the Japanese Red Army carried out similar acts. All four, as well as others worked with various Arab and Palestinian terrorists, which like the red brigades were backed by the Soviet Bloc.

In the 1977 Frost/Nixon interviews, Richard Nixon defended America's destabilization of the Salvador Allende regime in Chile on domino theory grounds. Borrowing a metaphor he had heard, he stated that a Communist Chile and Cuba would create a "red sandwich" that could entrap Latin America between them.^[9] In the 1980s, the domino theory was used again to justify the Reagan administration's interventions in Central America and the Caribbean region.

In his memoirs, former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith described the successive rise of authoritarian left-wing governments in Sub-Saharan Africa during decolonization as "the communists' domino tactic".^[10] The establishment of pro-communist governments in Tanzania (1961–64) and Zambia (1964) and explicitly Marxist-Leninist governments in Angola (1975), Mozambique (1975), and eventually Rhodesia itself (in 1980)^[11] are cited by Smith as evidence of "the insidious encroachment of Soviet imperialism down the continent."^[12]

Other applications[link]

Political cartoon by Carlos Latuff applying the domino theory to the 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests.

Some foreign policy analysts in the United States have referred to the potential spread of both Islamic theocracy and liberal democracy in the Middle East as two different possibilities for a domino theory. During the Iran-Iraq war the United States and other western nations supported Iraq, fearing the spread of Iran's radical theocracy throughout the region. In the 2003 invasion of Iraq, some conservatives argued that when a democratic government is implemented, it would then help spread democracy and liberalism across the Middle East, and a war can install a democratic government. This has often been referred to as a "reverse domino theory,"^[13] to avoid confusion with the communist domino theory because it's based on influence instead of military aid.

See also[link]

• Cold War
• Containment
• Export of revolution
• Revolutionary wave
• Truman Doctrine
• World revolution

Domino effect[link]

• Mathematical induction
• Slippery slope
• Snowball effect

References[link]

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This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2009)

Steven Noel "Steve" Wariner (born December 25, 1954) is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. He has released eighteen studio albums, including six on MCA Records, and three each on RCA Records, Arista Records and Capitol Records. He has also charted more than fifty singles on the Billboard country singles charts, including ten Number One hits: "All Roads Lead to You", "Some Fools Never Learn", "You Can Dream of Me", "Life's Highway", "Small Town Girl", "The Weekend", "Lynda", "Where Did I Go Wrong", and "I Got Dreams", and "What If I Said", a duet with Anita Cochran from her album Back to You. Three of his studio albums have been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping 500,000 copies in the United States.

In addition to writing or co-writing most of his own songs, Wariner holds several writing credits for other artists, including Number One hits for Clint Black and Garth Brooks, as well as singles for Bryan White and Keith Urban. Other artists with whom he has worked include Nicolette Larson, Glen Campbell, Mark O'Connor, Asleep at the Wheel and Brad Paisley. Wariner has also won four Grammy Awards: one for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, and three for Best Country Instrumental, the most recent in 2010 for "Producer's Medley" from the album Steve Wariner, c.g.p., My Tribute to Chet Atkins. Steve Wariner was one of only four guitar players in the world to be given the "Certified Guitar Player" (CGP) award by Chet Atkins (five including Atkins himself).

Wariner became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1996. He was inducted into the Music City Walk of Fame in Nashville in 2008, and the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2011.

Early life[link]

This section requires expansion.

Steven Noel Wariner was born in Noblesville, Indiana, on December 25, 1954.^[2] Influenced at an early age by George Jones and Chet Atkins, Wariner started performing in his father's band, and later moved on to playing in local clubs. By age 17, he had been hired by Dottie West as a bass guitarist, and played on her single "Country Sunshine".^[2] He also worked with Glen Campbell, whom he has cited as a major influence on his work.^[3] After his stint with Dottie West, Steve Wariner toured playing bass for Grand Ole Opry star Bob Luman, and it was during this period that he was signed to RCA records by Chet Atkins.

Musical career[link]

RCA Records[link]

Wariner's first recording contract came in 1976, when he signed to RCA Records.^[2] His first single release for the label, "I'm Already Taken", peaked at #63 and was later recorded by Conway Twitty.^[3] Following it were five non-album singles, one of which ("The Easy Part's Over") fell one space short of Top 40 on the Billboard country charts. His first Top 40 hit, "Your Memory", came in late 1980 and peaked at #7. It was the first of six singles from his self-titled debut album,^[2] which also produced the #6 "By Now" and his first Number One, 1981's "All Roads Lead to You".^[3] Wariner's debut earned favorable comparisons to Glen Campbell for the low tuning of his guitar.^[2]

His second album for RCA, 1983's Midnight Fire, accounted for five singles. The lead single "Don't Your Memory Ever Sleep at Night" peaked at #23, while the next two singles became Top Five hits (the title track and "Lonely Women Make Good Lovers"). The final single fell short of Top 40, however. After this he exited RCA's roster and signed with MCA. RCA released a Greatest Hits package in 1985, promoted with the single "When We're Together." Since it was competing with his new singles on MCA, it didn't garner much attention and failed to chart. A year later, the label issued Down in Tennessee, which he had originally recorded for them in 1978 and which included "I'm Already Taken". To promote this album, RCA released the single "You Make It Feel So Right." This was a newly remixed version of the song, which was now a duet with Carol Chase. (The track had appeared on the previous year's Greatest Hits as a solo recording.) However, as with the previous RCA release, this single faced competition from his new MCA recordings, and also failed to chart.

MCA Records[link]

When Wariner signed to MCA Records in 1984, he began a string of consecutive Top Ten hits that lasted into the 1990s. The first of these was the #3 "What I Didn't Do", the first of three singles from his 1984 album One Good Night Deserves Another. Following it were the #8 "Heart Trouble" and his second Number One, "Some Fools Never Learn". He also collaborated with pop singer Nicolette Larson on her Top Ten country hit "That's How You Know When Love's Right", her only Top 40 country single. It was also during this time that Steve recorded the theme song for the ABC television sitcom, Who's the Boss?. Wariner's version of "Brand New Life", used from 1986 to 1990, is the most widely recognized rendition of the song.

His next album, Life's Highway, accounted for two consecutive Number Ones in "You Can Dream of Me" and the title track, while all three singles from the next album (1987's It's a Crazy World) went to Number One as well: "Small Town Girl", "The Weekend" and "Lynda". Wariner also sang duet vocals on Glen Campbell's 1987 single "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle".

I Should Be with You was Wariner's fourth release for MCA. Although none of its singles went to Number One, the album accounted for consecutive #2s in "Baby I'm Yours" and its title track. 1989's I Got Dreams produced the chart-toppers "Where Did I Go Wrong" and its title track, and by the end of the decade, Wariner had eight Number Ones on the country singles charts.

Laredo, released in 1990, was his final release for MCA. Lead-off single "The Domino Theory" peaked at #7, followed by the Mac McAnally co-write "Precious Thing" at #8 and "There for Awhile" at #17, his first single since 1984 not to reach Top Ten. After this single, he exited MCA.

Arista Records[link]

1991 saw the release of Wariner's first album for Arista Records. Entitled I Am Ready, this was also the first album of his career to be certified gold for shipping 500,000 copies in the United States. Singles from it included "Leave Him Out of This", "The Tips of My Fingers" (a cover of Bill Anderson's 1960 single), "A Woman Loves", "Crash Course in the Blues" and "Like a River to the Sea". These first three singles were all Top Ten hits. In 1992, Wariner received his first Grammy Award, for Best Country Vocal Collaboration, as a guest vocalist and guitarist alongside Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs and fiddler Mark O'Connor on the single "Restless", a #25-peaking single from O'Connor's album The New Nashville Cats.^[2] He also collaborated with O'Connor on the #71-peaking "Now It Belongs to You" on the same album.

His second album for Arista was 1993's Drive. Leading off this album was the Top Ten "If I Didn't Love You". After it came the Top 30 hits "Drivin' and Cryin'" and "It Won't Be Over You", although the album's title track stopped at #63. Wariner, along with Lee Roy Parnell and Diamond Rio, recorded a cover of Merle Haggard's "Workin' Man's Blues" as the fictional band Jed Zeppelin for the late-1994 tribute album Mama's Hungry Eyes.^[4] This cover peaked at #48 and was made into a music video. A year later, Wariner contributed a cover of the song "Get Back" to Come Together: America Salutes The Beatles, a tribute album which included country music covers of songs by The Beatles. His rendition charted at #72 on the country charts.

An instrumental album, No More Mr. Nice Guy followed in 1996. His final Arista release, it produced no singles, although one of the tracks, "Brickyard Boogie", was nominated for Best Country Instrumental at the 1997 Grammy Awards. This track was a collaboration with Bryan White, Jeffrey Steele, Bryan Austin and former Pearl River guitarist Derek George.^[5] Despite exiting Arista in 1997, Wariner made a guest appearance along with Mac McAnally in the music video for Sawyer Brown's 1997 single "This Night Won't Last Forever", a cover of the Michael Johnson song.

Capitol Records[link]

Although he was not signed to a recording contract since 1996, Wariner had found success as a songwriter in Nashville, including several singles between late 1997 and early 1998. Among these were the Number One hits "Longneck Bottle" for Garth Brooks (a song on which Wariner also sang backup vocals and played guitar) and "Nothin' but the Taillights" for Clint Black, as well as Bryan White's #15 "One Small Miracle".^[2][6] He also sang duet vocals on Anita Cochran's single "What If I Said", from her Warner Bros. Records debut album Back to You. This song became a Number One in early 1998. Several radio stations in the United States began to play the singles that Wariner co-wrote along with the Cochran duet in special airplay blocks.^[6] The success of these songs led to him signing with Capitol Records Nashville in 1998. Leading off his Capitol releases was the #2 single "Holes in the Floor of Heaven", the first of four releases from the album Burnin' the Roadhouse Down. This album, his second to be certified gold, produced three more singles: the title track (a duet with Brooks) at #26, "Road Trippin'" at #55 and "Every Little Whisper" at #36. Also in 1998, "Holes in the Floor of Heaven" earned Wariner his first Country Music Association awards, winning both Single of the Year and Song of the Year.^[2] Burnin' the Roadhouse Down was also his highest peak on Top Country Albums, at #6.

Wariner's second album for Capitol was entitled Two Teardrops. Released in 1999, it was certified gold as well.^[3] It produced only two singles: its title track, which Wariner co-wrote with Bill Anderson, and a re-recording of "I'm Already Taken". Respectively, these singles reached #2 and #3 on the country charts. Like Burnin' the Roadhouse Down before it, Two Teardrops peaked at #6 on the country albums charts.

He reached Top Ten on the country charts for the last time in early 2000, duetting with Clint Black on the song "Been There" (which the two also co-wrote), the second single from Black's 1999 album D'lectrified. Also that year, Wariner won his second Grammy Award, this time for Best Country Instrumental as a guest musician on the Asleep at the Wheel song "Bob's Breakdown".^[2] Following "Been There" was the #28 "Faith in You", the first release from Wariner's 2000 album of the same name.^[2] After this album's only other single — the #22 "Katie Wants a Fast One", another duet with Brooks — Wariner exited Capitol. He continued to write, and in 2001 Keith Urban charted in the Top Five with "Where the Blacktop Ends", which Wariner co-wrote with Allen Shamblin.

2003-present[link]

Wariner formed his own label in 2003, called Selectone Records.^[3] His first album for this label, Steal Another Day, accounted for low-charting singles in "I'm Your Man" and "Snowfall on the Sand", both of which peaked in the fifties on the country singles charts. Another album for Selectone, 2005's The Real Life, produced no singles. In 2008, Wariner won his second Grammy for Best Country Instrumental, and third Grammy overall, as one of several guitarists featured on the track "Cluster Pluck" from Brad Paisley's 2008 album Play. Wariner also co-wrote and played guitar on the track "More Than Just This Song" from this same album. In 2009 Wariner released a tribute to his mentor Chet Atkins entitled My Tribute to Chet Atkins, which led to his 4th Grammy award in 2010, for Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Producer's Medley." In 2011 he released Guitar Laboratory, an eclectic, all-instrumental collection exploring classical, country, jazz, blues, rock, and Hawaiian sounds.

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Official Fan Club Website
• Grand Ole Opry Bio
• Tom Redmond - Working with Chet Atkins - An Interview with Steve Wariner