Does anyone remember the domino theory? (Ebbie)
Does anyone remember 2 million dead Cambodians? (BeardedBruce)

BB just reminds us that the domino theory might have been right after all. Both Laos and Cambodia turned communist after the American defeat in South Vietnam.

So it was actually correct, in a superficial way.

Nevertheless, the Indochina politics of the USA was a disaster. It did not prevent what it tried to prevent and it can be argued that it even has increased the probability of happening what the USA tried to avoid at high costs (more countries turning to communist ideas). So, the politics of the USA may even have initiated the small domino-effect the defeat had. They made communism in that region of the world more popular than it deserved to be.

Look at Vietnam now. Despite paying lip service to the communist past the economy is now very close to a market economy and the threat to the West consists of lower prices for some goods. Sometimes I say cynically that the Vietnam war has only served to postpone the defeat of communist ideas in Vietnam.

I'd somehow forgotten that Ho Chi Mihn ordered the Vietnamese Army to invade Cambodia (Bobert)

So you mean he didn't know about the path named after him? (deliberately misunderstanding what I know you mean)

Wolfgang