To the editor:

At a news conference on April 7, 1954, then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower outlined what he called the domino principle. In speaking of the potential for nations in Southeast Asia coming under Communist rule he stated, “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” was the primary rationale for the United States’ failed involvement in the civil war in Vietnam. It cost this nation the lives of 45,000 young men and women who fought and died for what proved to be an erroneous policy.

On Oct. 6, President George W. Bush stated that the primary reason for our involvement in what is essentially a civil war in Iraq is that, “The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia.”

How many of its young people is it going to cost this country to learn the same hard lesson all over again?

David Bishop,

Lawrence