On this day, April 7, in 1954

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a speech regarding the communist threat in Indochina. In it, Eisenhower introduced the idea that later became known as the "domino theory". The domino theory was the basis for a foreign policy stating that the spread of communism would follow the effect of falling dominos, in other words it would quickly spread and should be seen as a dangerous force. Although this theory proved invalid, it was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify American intervention all around the world. Some theorists even claim that the true nature of the domino theory was to serve as a scare tactic in order to justify unnecessary interventionist policies. Good thing we’ve learned to get our facts straight before we go fight overseas, huh?