During the
Vietnam War, a rationale for continuing it: if the
US were to
"lose"
Vietnam, then adjacent dominoes
Cambodia and
Laos would fall to
the
communists as well. And then, swiftly, an
Asian
Iron Curtain would
descend, from Kabul to Kyoto. In fact, the "dominoes" stopped falling after the
Pathet Lao took Vientiane. This policy was brought out of mothballs by the
Reagan administration, to justify its
thuggery-by-proxy in
Central America.
Also the title of an album by Weather Report. Wayne Shorter had already receded into the background by then, so jazz purists were not very impressed.