"George Z. Bush" wrote
"SteveM8597" wrote in message

(Snip)

Our objective was to prevent the spread of communism in SEA. The
Domino
theory is evidence of that. I believe we accomplished that.

I agree, but we did it by spending them into national bankruptcy. That in
itself ought to tell us that the Domino Theory was invalid from its
inception.
We didn't have to enter armed conflict to contain communism, we had merely
to
force them to expend their limited resources in a futile effort to keep up
with
how we spent ours.

Unchecked expansion and access to more natural resources might have had a
beneficial effect on their economy. Dragging out the (probably) inevitable
collapse for a few more years/decades.

I say *might*. We can't know what the outcome would have been had different
choices been made.

Pete