Which US president initiated the policy of 'Vietnamization' to withdraw US troops?

Richard Nixon initiated the policy of “Vietnamization” to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam. Announced in 1969, the policy aimed to reduce American combat involvement while expanding, equipping, and training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) to take over more of the fighting.

Vietnamization responded to growing American opposition after the 1968 Tet Offensive and to the political pressure Nixon faced to end U.S. involvement. The first major troop withdrawals began in mid-1969, while American aid and training for South Vietnam increased. The policy was part of Nixon’s broader effort to negotiate an end to the war without an immediate collapse of South Vietnam.

The term is sometimes confused with the Nixon Doctrine, a wider foreign-policy principle that encouraged U.S. allies to provide most of the manpower for their own defense. Vietnamization specifically concerned the Vietnam War. Although U.S. forces largely withdrew by 1973, South Vietnam fell to North Vietnam in 1975.