The Domino Theory Revisited

When I was a kid, I used to listen to politicians who made their living off the fear of creeping socialism. We needed to stay vigilant. We could not relax, not for a moment. If South Vietnam fell to the Communists, it would be only a matter of time before all of southeast Asia would fall under the grip of the evil despots behind the Bamboo Curtain. It all seemed so very frightening and inevitable. We, as Americans, were duty-bound to let freedom ring.
That was back in the seventies. Ten years later, we had Ronald Reagan demanding that Mister Gorbachev tear down his wall. This assertion did little to stir things up in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Or in North Korea. Or in The People's Republic of China. Way out west, Europe became a free-wheeling hot-bed of democracy. Poland even elected an electrician to head their newly minted government, signaling the collapse of Soviet-style oppression. Soon there were other forms of oppression to choose from.
And now, thanks to Facebook, we have our newest revolution in Egypt. Coming fast on the heels of Tunisia and southern Sudan, things are changing quickly in the cradle of civilization. In Yemen and Algeria the winds of change continue to blow. Here in America, we tend to vacillate wildly from wild enthusiasm to cautious optimism. It was so much easier when we could keep a blind eye to the human rights abuses while we made our deals for oil and military bases. Now we might have to deal with the people of some of those countries, many of whom are less than thrilled with the United States. In the meantime, Vietnam is making contracts with Iran to develop vast new oil fields, and have invited a US solar energy company to build a billion dollar factory outside of Ho Chi Minh City. And all those clever Vietnamese have figured out how to work around their government's Facebook block. The revolution may not be televised, but it will be posted on Youtube.