Melvin Laird, Who Oversaw U.S. Pullout From Vietnam, Dies at 94

  • President Nixon’s defense secretary withdrew 547,000 troops
  • Laird designed the ‘Vietnamization’ plan to end U.S. war role

Melvin Laird

Photographer: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
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Melvin Laird, the defense secretary under Richard Nixon who oversaw the withdrawal of more than half a million U.S. troops during the Vietnam War, has died. He was 94.

He died Wednesday in a hospital in Fort Myers, Florida, his grandson, Raymond Dennis Large III, said by telephone. No cause was given.