![]() troop withdrawals and efforts to prepare and modernize the South Vietnamese army, Nixon’s Vietnamization strategy also featured programs designed to strengthen the South Vietnamese government and expand its political base in rural areas. ![]() ![]() In this administration, we are Vietnamizing the search for peace.” “In the previous administration, we Americanized the war in Vietnam. And it is particularly the responsibility of the people whose freedom is threatened,” Nixon explained. “The defense of freedom is everybody’s business, not just America’s business. He emphasized how his approach contrasted with the “Americanization” of the war that had taken place under his predecessor, President Lyndon Johnson (1908-73). The president announced his Vietnamization strategy to the American people in a nationally televised speech on November 3, 1969. The Nixon administration’s Vietnamization plan provided for a gradual, phased withdrawal of American combat forces, combined with an expanded effort to train and equip South Vietnam to take over military responsibility for its own defense. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird (1922-) first used the term in March 1969, following a visit to South Vietnam. Toward this end, Nixon and his advisors developed a new strategy they called Vietnamization. troops and publicly expressed a desire to achieve “peace with honor” in Vietnam. He rejected calls from the anti-war movement to order an immediate withdrawal of U.S. ![]() Facing intense pressure from a frustrated and war-weary public, Nixon sought a way to disengage American combat forces without appearing to abandon South Vietnam to the Communists. ![]()
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