This foreign policy study will define the foundations of the Domino Theory to define the necessity of a continual escalation of the Vietnam in the early in the 1960s. The continual threat of communist expansion by China into North Vietnam defined the necessity of providing U.S. military assistance to South Vietnam. President Johnson’s decision to escalate the war into combat military operations was the direct result of Eisenhower’s Domino Theory as a motive to prevent further communist invasions of democratic nations in Southeast Asia. In 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin incident laid the foundations for military operations against North Vietnam through small-scale military operations. However, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara did not have a good…show more content… However, Kennedy chose not to use direct military intervention as a means in which accomplish these goals in stopping China from providing military arms and political support for the Viet Cong. Kennedy himself identifies this aspect of foreign policy decisions, which prevented a military intervention before his assassination in 1963: “And Kennedy acknowledged a belief in domino theory. “we should use our influence in as effective way as we can, but we should not withdraw,” he said. (Kaiser, 2000, p.250). This aspect of Kennedy’s foreign policy defines the involvement of the CIA and other covert methods of preventing communist invasions, which refuted the necessity of direct military operations. This aspect of the Domino Theory defines the rationale for a U.S. political and covert bulwark against the Chinese support for the Viet Cong during the early 1960s. This is one reason why President Kennedy was reluctant to send troops with the potential problem of world war against China and the Soviet union a potential threat: “Kennedy rejected the proposal to send troops” (Lawrence, 2010, p.72). This type of political aspect of covert activity against North Vietnam was the underlying rationale that led the micromanagement of military affairs in avoiding a direct war with China or the Soviet Union in protecting South Vietnam from communist infiltration. Kennedy was aware of the potential for world war, which allowed him to remain cautious against sending troops and escalating the war. However, he would soon be assassinated in 1963, which allowed his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, to altar the covert/CIA operations of the conflict into an open war with the use of U.S. military ground