April 7, 1954: President Dwight D. Eisenhower calls a press conference, explaining why America was contributing to the fighting of Communism in the East Asian nation of Vietnam. It became known as the Domino Theo
You have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.
This theory scared, and thus was kept in place by, not just "Ike," but by the next 2 Presidents, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. But Ike turned out to be mostly wrong. I say "mostly" because, once his former Vice President, Richard Nixon, became President, on a promise to end the war, he extended the war to Cambodia, destabilizing that country. In the end, Cambodia was the only other "domino" to fall: Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist, an Asian version of Yugoslavia's Marshal Josip Broz Tito, looking to convert his own country to Communism, and no one else's.
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April 7, 1954 was a Wednesday. Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Tony Dorsett and actor Jackie Chan were born.
There were no games on this historic day. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals were both underway, although this was a travel day for both. In the NBA, the Minneapolis Lakers went on to beat the Syracuse Nationals. In the NHL, the Detroit Red Wings went on to beat the Montreal Canadiens. Both series went to 7 games.
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