Introduction to international relations class, summary related to Essay

Introduction to international relations class, summary related to course on Path to War - Essay Example However, Path to War did not only highlight the personal dilemmas that the president had to deal with during the Vietnam debacle. The movie also exposed the two lines of thought and the corresponding approaches in international relations during the time of the Cold War. In fact, many of the scenes of the debates that took place the Johnson administration’s cabinet meetings focus on these concerns. The ‘domino theory’ was a very influential concept among the politicians at that time. The U.S. government itself was its strongest believer. This theory is based on the analysis that if one country becomes communist, the neighboring countries would surely follow, just like the pieces of the domino. In Path to War, Johnson is portrayed to have firmly believed that once South Vietnam is reunited with the North, it would become communist too. Subsequently, the rest of the countries in Indochina and the entire Southeast Asia could all fall under communist regimes. With this theory in mind, the Johnson administration at the onset of the war were all one in arguing for the necessity of preventing the fall of South Vietnam to the hands of the local communist insurgents. To do so, it sent military advisers to the Southeast Asian country in order to train its armed forces.