The domino theory, coined by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1954 but based on previous worries over Soviet and Chinese expansion particularly after the Second World War, was a theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s that suggested that if one country in a region came under the influence of Communism, the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. The domino theory was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world largely based on their anti-Communist foreign policy. It was one of the first proponents justifying America’s involvement in Vietnam under the Kennedy administration.
