What would be the harm in letting a country like Nicaragua go its own course?
Chomsky: Here we come to another long standing concern of American planners which has never been abandoned…. That is the rational version of the domino theory. There are two versions of the domino theory. One of them is crazy. That is the version that is used to scare the public: ‘They are going to land in San Francisco.’ But there is also a rational version. And the rational version is that there could be a demonstration effect. If any country can fall into the hands of nationalist leaders who devote resources to their own populations, it could very well have a demonstration effect. It could be a virus that will infect the region and even beyond…. What was the concern about [Salvador] Allende? They are going to be able to get the copper. It is the virus of Allende. [It] will send the wrong message to Italy, not because Chile is going to conquer Italy, but because you have a big communist party there, you have a big workers’ movement, which has never been destroyed despite many eff
