Eisenhower's warning shaped U.S. policy in Southeast Asia

On April 7, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower gave his "domino theory speech" during a press conference in which he claimed that the fall of French Indochina to communism would create a domino effect in Southeast Asia, creating widespread Communist rule in the region.

During the speech he stated, "You have a row of dominos set up, you knock over the first one and the second falls easily and so forth." In other words, the independent countries in the region would be unstable and all the countries of Southeast Asia would also fall.

Political experts state that Eisenhower's warning paved the way for U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Later, both President John F. Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, referenced this speech when explaining the reasoning for escalating the U.S. involvement