75-07-A2
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Indochina # 1
TranscriptYes Virginia there really is a domino theory and sad to say it's working right now. I'll be right back. Those who ridicule the domino theory believed in it when Hitler was picking off small nations in europe 37 years ago. They just don't believe it applies when the enemy is communist and the countries losing their freedom are Asian. The term domino theory describes what happens to our allies if we back down and let one be taken over by the communists because we don't want to be bothered. The enemy decides it's safe to go after others;-that we represent no threat to his aggression but even worse our allies no longer able to trust us start making deals. One can almost hear an echo of the hollow tapping of Neville Chamberlain's umbrella on the cobblestones of Munich. But this time the appeasement is taking place in the halls of Congress. When we withdrew our forces from the long bloodletting in Vietnam we did so with the understanding that we'd provide weapons and ammunition to enable South Vietnam and Cambodia to resist if the North Vietnamese violated the negotiated ceasefire. While violating agreements is standard operating procedure for communists-they violated this one 72,000 times in the first twelve months including the cruel denial of any word about our 1300 men who are still listed as missing in action. That incidentally was a major point to us in the negotiated cease-fire. So far they've thumbed their noses at us and refused to allow any of our thirty-one search teams to set foot on their territory. We do nothing because the Congress has taken from the commander-in-chief the authority to take any action at all to enforce the terms of the treaty. Now that same Congress with unprecedented irresponsibility has refused to authorize the money that would permit our nation to keep its pledged word. The dominoes begin to fall. Three years ago I represented our government in Thailand to assure them the President's trip to Peking did not mean we would abandon Thailand and close our air bases there (a major part of their economy). Now they tell us they don't want our bases they're going to do business with Red China. The Philippines whose history and existence as a nation is intertwined with ours have announced they're reassessing their relationship with us and are negotiating with Red China. Japan the great industrial power capable of modernizing and arming a communist Asia has just opened discussions with Hanoi. But the dominoes are worldwide. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger returns empty-handed from the Middle East. A few months ago the power and reliability of the United States had brought the Israeli Arab conflict closer to peace than at any time in 50 years. Now there's talk of war by summer. The press described Kissinger's eyes as wet with tears of frustration.-Our power and reliability are no longer believable because of our failure to stand by an ally and far off Indochina. Turkey stands aloof-snubbing us. Greece the southern anchor of the NATO line leans leftward and no longer looks forward to visits by our sixth fleet in the Mediterranean and with Portugal going communist at the other end of that ocean the sixth fleet may soon find it must withdraw or become a model ship in a bottle. Once the dominoes fall we may find ourselves very lonely indeed. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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