American Experience

Who's Who: United States		return to index
	Melvin Laird			33 of 41

Melvin Laird was a Republican congressman from Wisconsin who served as Richard Nixon's secretary of defense from 1969 to 1972. Laird urged Nixon to follow through on a policy of U.S. troop withdrawal from Vietnam. He coined the phrase "Vietnamization," meaning that more of the burden of fighting the war should fall to the South Vietnamese forces.