With this new My Favorite Wargame Cards Series, I hope to take a look at a specific card from the various wargames that I have played and share how it is used in the game. I am not a strategist and frankly I am not that good at games but I do understand how things should work and be used in games. With that being said, here is the next entry in this series.

Card #35: Domino Theory from Fire in the Lake: Insurgency in Vietnam from GMT Games

The COIN Series uses cards in a very different way from other CDG’s. These cards are not necessarily the driver of the action but more assistive to the actions of the players by setting eligibility and also providing powerful events. The Event Cards are more often than not, very powerful. They either give you a continuing bonus on future Operations and Special Activities (as in the case of the volumes that include the various Capabilities) or allow you to take Operations and Special Activities more times that round than you would normally have been able to had you not chosen the Event and more often than not, at no cost! Also, because of the power of the cards and their ties to one or more factions, you can take the Event which allows you a huge advantage, only to see that very powerful Event reversed with the next Event or with a regular Operation. This is very frustrating but is one of the major reasons that I love the card-assisted element of the COIN Series. Today we are going to take a look at a more historically interesting card than for its game effect in Domino Theory.

Domino Theory is an interesting card as it allows the US or the ARVN players to get additional units from Out of Play into the game and the Available Box. The US and ARVN units that are located in the Out of Play Box are neither Available nor considered to be on the map but are there and can be deployed to the game board through Event Cards. Remember, that for the US, having units in their Available Box is one of their Victory Conditions as this represents units that have the potential to be involved in the game but also can represent those forces leaving the theater as the US tries to disengage and remove themselves from the war. This card can also be used by the ARVN player to increase their Resources and Aid each by +9, which is a huge swing. Keep in mind that one of the parts of the ARVN Victory Conditions is their level of Patronage and this Patronage comes directly as a result of increased Resources that they can take and add to their own pockets. The shaded portion of the event is for the insurgents and is a nasty move as it takes away 3 Available US Troops and moves them to Out of Play and reduces Aid by -9. All in all this is somewhat of a pedestrian card but the thematic connection is what I was going for here with its selection.

The Domino Theory is a geopolitical theory which posits that changes in the political structure of one country tend to spread to neighboring countries in a domino-like effect. It was a theory that was prominent in the United States from the 1950’s to the 1980’s in the context of the ongoing Cold War and the ideological battle between democracy and communism, suggesting that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow. It was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War as justification for American intervention around the world. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower described the theory during a news conference on April 7, 1954, when referring to communism in Indochina as follows:

Finally, 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.

Moreover, Eisenhower’s deep belief in the Domino Theory in Asia heightened the “perceived costs” for the United States of pursuing multilateralism because of multifaceted events including the 1949 victory of the Chinese Communist Party, the June 1950 North Korean invasion, the 1954 Quemoy offshore island crisis, and the conflict in Indochina constituted a broad-based challenge not only for one or two countries, but for the entire Asian continent and Pacific.

During the summer of 1963, Buddhists protested about the harsh treatment they were receiving under the Diem government of South Vietnam. Such actions of the South Vietnamese government made it difficult for the Kennedy administration’s strong support for President Diem. President Kennedy was in a tenuous position, trying to contain Communism in Southeast Asia, but on the other hand, supporting an anti-Communist government that was not popular with its domestic citizens and was guilty of acts objectionable to the American public. The Kennedy administration intervened in Vietnam in the early 1960’s to, among other reasons, keep the South Vietnamese “domino” from falling. When Kennedy came to power there was concern that the communist-led Pathet Lao in Laos would provide the Viet Cong with bases, and that eventually they could take over Laos.

In the next entry in this series, we will take a look at Supply Lines from Stilicho: Last of the Romans from Hollandspiele.

-Grant