Vietnamization
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The process of becoming more Vietnamese. countable, uncountable
- 2 Especially, the U.S. government policy of reducing American involvement in the Vietnam War by replacing American troops with Vietnamese troops. countable, historical, uncountable
"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."
- 3 A growth of cynicism, disenchantment or belief in corruption such as the American citizenry experienced over the course of the Vietnam War. countable, figuratively, uncountable
"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."
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
From Vietnam + -ization.
Related phrases
More for "vietnamization"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.