24. Fact: The Vietnam War expanded into Cambodia and Laos during the time of American involvement
Communist supported troops in Cambodia and Laos were actively involved in civil wars in both of those countries during the period of American involvement in Vietnam, and American troops deployed, secretly in both cases, to contain them. American involvement by then was not based on the defeat of the communist movements but rather the necessity of securing an American withdrawal from the combat areas under what Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger called Vietnamization of the war – the transfer of responsibility for the defense of their country to the South Vietnamese, rather than the American troops on the scene. America left Southeast Asia dominated by communist regimes when it withdrew after more than a decade in Vietnam.
