The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s

by William I. Hitchcock

In mid-January 1954 he had tasked a small group of his most trusted advisers, chaired by Undersecretary of State Bedell Smith, to think broadly about a Southeast Asia “area plan,” as he called it, “including the possible alternative lines of action to be taken in case of a reverse in Indochina.” In mid-February, while testifying to a closed executive session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Smith revealed that planning along those lines had moved ahead. Rejecting the domino theory, Smith said, “Even at the worst, part of Indochina might be lost without losing the rest of Southeast Asia. . . . One can think of the possibility of an area defense pact which might include Thailand as the bastion, Burma and possibly Cambodia and part of Indochina—and maybe some part of it could be lost without disastrous effect.” A man as savvy as Smith, Ike’s intimate confidante, would never have said such things