Vietnamisation (or Vietnamization)was a policy of Richard Nixon’s administration, coined by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird in 1969, to end U.S. involvement in the Second Indochina War (1955-1975) in Vietnam. The policy proposed to expand and strengthen the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam (ARVN) by providing more military equipment and training for its troops. The policy’s goal was to assign ARVN an ever-increasing combat role while at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops, particularly ground forces.
