The Collaborative International Dictionary
Domino theory \Dom"i*no the"o*ry\ A political theory current in the 1960's, according to which the conversion of one country in South Asia to communism will start a sequential process causing all Asian countries to convert to Communism.
Note: The apparent assumption was that an Asian country politically aligned with the West was as politically unstable as a domino standing on edge. It was used by some as a justification for American involvement in the Vietnam war, 1964-1972.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
in geo-politics, by 1963; see domino. Eisenhower's original phrase was domino principle (1954).
Wiktionary
n. (context politics historical English) The theory that, if South Vietnam fell to Communism, it would be followed by Cambodia, Laos, and additional South Asian countries.
WordNet
n. the political theory that if one nation comes under Communist control then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control
Wikipedia
The domino theory was a theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s, that speculated that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. The domino theory was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world.
Though he never used the precise term "domino theory", U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower described the theory during an April 7, 1954, news conference, when referring to communism in Indochina:
Domino Theory is the fourteenth studio album by Weather Report. It is the second album to feature the Hakim-Bailey-Rossy rhythm section.
Usage examples of "domino theory".
John the Night Tripper, Joan Baez, the Dead Man's Hand, Joker and the One-Eyed Jacks, Peyote Woman, the Heavenly Blues, the Golems, the Supreme Awakening, the Seven Types of Ambiguity, the Cold War, the Street Fighters, the Bank Burners, the Slaves of Satan, the Domino Theory, and Maxwell and His Demons.
The lawyer they had hired, Warley or Warmly or whatever, kept talking about something he called the domino theory, and about the need to get out of 'the condemned building before the whole thing falls down on your' head, boy - there are two states and three Federal agencies bringing up the wrecking balls.
Fergus, you re not talking about the Domino Theory by any chance, are you?
This from the people who snickered about the domino theory in Vietnam.
He also now subscribed to a kind of domino theory with respect to his colonial possessions, as he explained to a discouraged Lord North on June 11, 1779: Should America succeed.
When they shot the domino theory to hell over in Southeast Asia, he just took it and put it to work on the American economy.