First the Warsaw Pact crumbled and exited the Soviet system and then the USSR broke apart, in as fine an example of the "discredited" domino theory as you'll ever find.
Which is why I always offer those events as supporting evidence that our stand in South Vietnam did indeed help keep much of South, Southeast, and Northeast Asia from falling to the communists by holding the line until countries from India to Korea could strengthen their governments and societies to resist the idealistic appeal of communism (which was in stark contrast to the reality of communism, but the appeal was there for those without experience of living under communism).
Critics of the domino theory for Vietnam ridiculed the idea, ignoring the dominoes of Cambodia and Laos nearby that did fall and ignoring what might have fallen had the North Vietnamese won in 1965 rather than 1975.
And recalling the events of 1989 is why I hold out hope that a democratic Iraq could yet be a catalyst for the spread of democracy and rule of law in the Arab Moslem world. The reforms of Lebanon in 2005 were stymied as the Iranian- and Syrian-sponsored violence in Iraq spread throughout 2006, but I have hope that as Iraq settles down, we may yet see an Arab and Moslem spring just as revolutionary as 1989 in Europe.
UPDATE: East Europeans celebrated the destruction of the wall with a falling dominoes event:
After the leaders spoke, the former head of the Polish Solidarity movement, Lech Walesa, toppled the first of a chain of giant coloured dominoes set up along a 1.5 km (0.9 mile) stretch where the Wall once stood.
The figurative dominoes themselves know what happened regardless of what the nuanced say cannot happen.
Grant me that this is funny.
UPDATE: A refresher on those Vietnam dominoes.
