Breitbart had a rather confusing but nevertheless interesting take on the Domino Theory. After the end of WW2, beside our cold war confrontation with Russia and the new Soviet Union which had annexed most of Eastern Europe and half of Germany, we also had hot wars with the Communist proxies spreading in the far east Asia – Korea and Viet Nam.
During an interview with Prager U Dr. Paul Kengor – Marlow of Breitbart highlighted Kengor’s statement that “Democrats gave us Pol Pot”. At first glance that sounds like a stretch, but it is backed up by Kengor quoting Eisenhower’s comment that if China went Communist, other countries like Korea would likewise fall. Hence, this led to Pol Pot and the Cambodian massacre – Khmer Rouge, but also the Korean and Viet Nam Wars.
Kengor followed up describing a puff piece in the NY Times promoted by the Democrats that helped glorify Castro and helped to resurrect him from a marginal player to hero and ultimately the biggest thorn in America’s side in the Western Hemisphere during the cold war. Thus, the NY Times and the Dems are held responsible for not only Pol Pot, but the policies that led to Chinese communists in Korea and Viet Nam. I agree that the far left Marxists in America calling themselves “Democrat” or “Progressive” did indeed help our Communist enemies – but I don’t actually think we could have done anything of real value to stop it unless we were willing to go to war with China after the end of WW2. And let’s face – there was no one willing to do that. But Ike’s warning about the Military Industrial Complex indeed came true – and ironically he inadvertently helped these Oligarchs justify the wars by his “Domino Theory” – and hence these endless wars in Korea and Viet Nam.
I get the outrage of Breitbart’s reporter Alana Mastrangelo blaming the Dems and the NY Times for promoting Marxist scum. That part of the article is definitely true. The NY times Pulitzer winner lauded Stalin’s agriculture policies – and millions were starved to death in Ukraine in the 1930s as Duranty of the Times was accepting his Pulitzer (nothing new for Russia to have issues with Ukraine). And before that, the NY Times remained silent about the holocaust – even though the owner of the paper was a secular Jew. The NY Times, like the Democrat party, has a long history of being on the wrong side of history.
Problem I have here is I’m not sure how the US could have prevented China from becoming Communist. In hindsight if we couldn’t stop China from going Communist – Korea, Viet Nam wars were ultimately a catastrophic waste of soldiers and treasure. Logically, the only way to actually have stopped the domino effect was to stop China from becoming Communist. That didn’t happen. In the scheme of things, after Mao took over – it might have made very little difference if we did nothing – except we would have saved billions in treasure and probably over 100,000 US lives! The only thing I see as a net positive is that the industrious S. Koreans we SAVED make nice cars and appliances. But was it worth 100,000 US soldiers?