Vietnamization

English

Etymology

From Vietnam +‎ -ization.

Noun

Vietnamization (countable and uncountable, plural Vietnamizations)

1. The process of becoming more Vietnamese.
2. (historical) Especially, the U.S. government policy of reducing American involvement in the Vietnam War by replacing American troops with Vietnamese troops.
   • 1969 August 17, James P. Sterba, “Most Materiel in Vietnam To Go With U.S. Forces”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Plans for the Vietnamization of the war effort call for the turnover of only a small fraction of the equipment now being used by United States forces here.

   • 1980, Spiro Agnew, Go Quietly . . . Or Else‎^[2], New York: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 28:

     Actually, the President went along with Laird's idea of "Vietnamization." By this was meant the gradual building up and training of South Vietnamese forces until they would be able to carry the combat responsibility without our troop involvement. That made a lot of sense, but it also required us to carry on a strong war effort until the South Vietnamese could take over. Vietnamization should have begun the moment President Kennedy put our first American soldier into Vietnam.

3. (figurative) A growth of cynicism, disenchantment or belief in corruption such as the American citizenry experienced over the course of the Vietnam War.
   • 1973, Pauline Kael, The New Yorker:

     The post-Second World War movies said that villainy would be punished and goodness would triumph; the decencies would be respected. But movies don't say that anymore; the Vietnamization of American movies is nearly complete. Today, movies say that the system is corrupt, that the whole thing stinks, and they've been saying this steadily since the mid-sixties.

Related terms

• Afghanization
• Iraqification
• Vietnamize