Invasion of Laos

Known as Operation Lam Son 719, the invasion of Laos was the ultimate test of "Vietnamization"—Nixon's policy of shifting the burden of combat to South Vietnamese troops. The goal was to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the vital supply route through Laos and Cambodia used to resupply the Vietcong. The result, however, was a disaster that revealed the true weakness of the South’s military. Without U.S. ground troops, the South Vietnamese forces were crushed by the North, and images of soldiers clinging to the skids of U.S. helicopters to escape became a symbol of how desperate the operation was.