Dominoes and Bandwagons: Strategic Beliefs and Great Power Competition in the Eurasian RimlandRobert Jervis, Jack L. Snyder Fearing the loss of Korea and Vietnam would touch off a chain reaction of other countries turning communist, the United States fought two major wars in the hinterlands of Asia. What accounts for such exaggerated alarm, and what were its consequences? Is a fear of the domino effect permanently rooted in the American strategic psyche, or has the United States now adopted a less alarmist approach? The essays in this book address these questions by examining domino thinking in United States and Soviet Cold War strategy, and in earlier historic settings. Combining theory and history in analyzing issues relevant to current public policy, Dominoes and Bandwagons examines the extent to which domino fears were a rational response, a psychological reaction, or a tactic in domestic politics. |
Contents
1 Introduction | 3 |
2 Domino Beliefs and Strategic Behavior | 20 |
Balancing and Bandwagoning in Cold War Competition | 51 |
Myth or Reality? | 85 |
The Birth of the Falling Domino Principle | 112 |
Visions of Resistance or Cumulating Gains? | 145 |
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Acheson Afghan Afghanistan aggressive alignment alliance American allies Angola argued argument Asian attribution attribution theory balance of power bandwagon behavior Brezhnev British Central Asia chap China cold cold war commitments communist conflict Congress countries credibility crisis cumulating gains decision makers defeat defense detente deterrence theory Diplomacy dispositional domestic domino principle domino theory economic efforts Eisenhower elite factors falling dominoes fear forces Foreign Policy FRUS Germany global Herat HSTL Ibid imperial important India Indochina inferences International intervention Iran Iran's Iranian Islamic Izvestiya Kabul Korea Krasnaya Zvezda lessons ment Middle East Moscow mujahadeen Pakistan perimeter strategy periphery policymakers political Pravda Princeton region relations resist revolution Robert Jervis Russian situation South Vietnam Southeast Asia Soviet analysts Soviet expansion Soviet observers Soviet perceptions Soviet Union SShA Strategies of Containment superpower Third World threat tion Truman Truman Doctrine Turkey United University Press victory Vietnam Walt Washington withdrawal York