Threats to the US: Past and present

[Ivan Seeking]

A recurring theme of this "war on terror" - that we have never faced a threat like this before - is found in David Brook's comments on PBS last night. The comparison between Vietnam and Iraq was considered, which led to the following statement:

... DAVID BROOKS: Right, I guess so, but, again, it doesn't change the fundamental situation. We could get out and withdraw, and the North Vietnamese were not coming to America. And that's the difference here. ...

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec06/sb_10-20.html

WRONG! We fought in Vietnam, or so we were told, in order to stop the spread of communism via the "domino effect". The Reds were coming to get us!

The domino theory was a 20th Century foreign policy theory that speculated if one land in a region came under the influence of Communists, then more would follow in a domino effect. The domino effect indicates that some change, small in itself, will cause a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence, by analogy to a falling row of dominoes standing on end.

The theory was used by many United States leaders during the Cold War to justify U.S. intervention in the Vietnam War. The domino theory was applied by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his top advisers in 1954 to describe the prospects of communist expansion in Asia if Indochina were to fall. Eisenhower argued that all of southeast Asia could fall. The theory's ultimate validity remained mixed, and debatable. After the U.S. left Vietnam, the North took over the South, and Cambodia and Laos had also turned to Communism, although Cambodia is no longer a communist state. This limited spread of Communism in Indochina provides ammunition for opponents of the theory, but both sides argue that the historical record overall supports their position.

In the 1980s, the domino theory was used again to justify the Reagan administration's interventions in Central America and the Caribbean region.[continued]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_effect

The world has always been hanging by a thread. When I grew up, we practiced hiding under our desks... in order to survive the ever present threat of a Soviet nuclear attack.

They were really strong desks.

 

[Astronuc]

When I grew up, we practiced hiding under our desks... in order to survive the ever present threat of a Soviet nuclear attack.

They were really strong desks.

I was introduced to that custom in 4th grade when I moved to the US. In 3rd grade, I had read an article on the hydrogen bomb and its effects on a major metropolitan area. I guessed the teachers didn't appreciate my questioning the wisdom (or rather absurdity) of what we were doing in the CD drills.

In 6th grade, I was assigned to the school safety patrol. I was one of 8 students whose job it was to monitor the halls during fire drills and hold flags at the cross-walks so the lower grades could cross safely.

 

[turbo]

We had the duck and cover drills, too, though nothing could have saved us if the Russians wanted to bomb us. Our school was about 1/10 mile downstream from a very high-value target - a large hydro dam with a deep 15-mile impoundment that would have drowned downstream cities, including two county seats and the state capital. If you use Google Earth or similar and search on Moscow, Maine you can see what I mean.