Perhaps it was all just a dream, but it occurred to me that the "cut and run" from Vietnam was followed by a domino effect all right, but a mighty positive one in reverse. First, there was the immediate cessation of the massive, decades-long allied and enemy casualties being suffered daily in Vietnam. No real threat to the United States remains to this day in Southeast Asia.

But most importantly, the implosion of the Soviet Union and its many satellites spelled the eventual doom of world communism. The last great positive double domino to tumble was the abdication of Russians as a top world power and the evaporation of the Cold War which threatened our very existence.

Finally, the crowing of the United States as the top world power emerged partly, you might say, from the very wise but gutsy "cut and run" from Vietnam. After all, none of the more serious forecast consequences befell us, and, in a worst scenario, we could still be there, broke and commiserating with the Russians on our inability to pay our troops. Instead we've made some new friends: the North Vietnamese, who were our best of friends at the end of World War II. Maybe what goes around comes around.

— Bob McCampbell, Ventura