Domino effect

The "domino effect" is the idea that some change, small in itself, will cause a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence, by analogy to a falling row of dominoes standing on end. A well-known use of this metaphor was a justification for the Vietnam War: if Vietnam fell to communism, then Cambodia would be next, then Laos, and eventually all of Southeast Asia.

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See also: Butterfly effect, Snowball effect, Mathematical induction