United States & Canada: International Economic Development

The United States and Canada
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The United States is no stranger to strategic conflicts. The nation has continuously been engaging in strategic battles, be it for supremacy or to abate the growth of an unwanted ideology. The country's military has played a significant part in its global domination. This is because it firmly believes in the domino theory. This theory was proposed by William Donovan, the then Director General of OSS, in an attempt to explain why engagement in war in various parts of the world by the United States, was appropriate. The country's first line of defense is the western frontier, following along the great arc that covers the whole line from Alaska to Australia, through countries like Korea, Japan, Philippines and Indonesia. These areas were the dominoes of the United States. If the United States, therefore, lost the Vietnam War, then these regions would be lost, one by one, thereby reducing the defensive frontier of the nation back to Hawaii.In a nutshell, defeat in the Vietnam War would result in a retreat by the United States army from the Asian colonies. This is what is meant by the domino theory. The Vietnam War is one of the bloodiest the country has ever engaged in. It pitted the South, aided by the western forces, against the North Vietnam, marshaled by the Vietcong and Russian artillery. The war still raises a lot of controversies to do with how much was achieved, and if anything was achieved by the United States. There are some accomplishments, however, that the United States achieved in this war.
Through its engagement in the war, the United States managed to curtail the spread of communism through Southeast Asia. Communism, spearheaded by the Soviet Union and China, was gathering pace in Southeast Asia (Westheider, 2007).The United States in its capacity managed to stem this communist tide and put checks into just how far it would spread. If the United States hadn't intervened in Vietnam, then South Vietnam would have been overrun very much earlier than it did. Once the south was occupied, the next stop for the communists would be the neighboring nations of Laos and Cambodia. To a large extent, Thailand too would be at risk of being taken over by communists (Alexander, 2007).
This was the case with of the aftermath of American withdrawal from Vietnam. There were fears that after the fall of Indochina into communists' hands, nothing would stop the rapid advancement of the communists into the rest of Asia. The North Vietnam Army (NVA) and the Vietcong ventured into Laos after conquering the South. These were the days of Pol Pot, one of the history's most evil and most cruel men. With his Khmer Rouge, he and his cult murdered thousands. Americans acted as the speed controllers of the communist movement, since had it not be for them, then the Vietcong and the rest of the communists would have conquered Southeast Asia a decade earlier(Tucker,2011).The domination was long overdue, only being held back by the determined American forces.
The development of Southeast Asia was therefore saved, as a result of the American intervention in Vietnam. If the communists had been allowed to spread as quickly as planned, then the entire Southeast Asia would inte...