The True Domino Theory: The United States' True Motives for the Domino Theory During the Cold War

Joseph Cautela

Abstract: In the 1950s, American politicians allegedly pushed the policy of containment of communist countries because of the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory is the theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries, like a falling domino causing an entire row of dominos to fall. The current understanding for why the United States was worried about communist and socialist countries was they were a threat to democracy and national security. By pursuing containment of communist and socialist countries by using the domino theory rationale, America had justification to overthrow and invade these countries to protect America and its values. In my research, I studied two case studies of American intervention in countries that were justified to contain communism: The U.S's backed coup in 1953 Iran and 1973 Chile. In my findings, I conclude that both Iran and Chile were not threats to United States national security, and they were not threats to democracy. However, Iran and Chile's implementation of economic nationalism was a threat to the United States because it threatened U.S. multi-international business assets. Thus, the two case studies did not stand up to the definition of the Domino Theory because The Domino Theory was less about the spread of communism, and protecting American values, but more importantly, ending the spread of economic nationalism that would negatively impact U.S. international assets.