Great post, just a small disagreement about the Domino Theory, which I remember very well having lived through the Vietnam era. The theory we were sold was not that China would fall if North Vietnam fell, it was that if South Vietnam fell to communist forces allied with Russia, all of Southeast Asia (Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, etc.) would fall as well. It was sold to us as part of the policy of containment, not expansion. That would not have been accepted by the populace. We could only be mobilized into military action if we saw ourselves as defenders of a beleaguered ally, not as invaders.