Melvin Robert "Bom" Laird (born September 1, 1922) is an American politician and writer. He was a U.S. congressman from Wisconsin before serving as Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973 under President Richard Nixon. Laird was instrumental in forming the administration's policy of withdrawing U.S. soldiers from the Vietnam War; he invented the expression "Vietnamization," referring to the process of transferring more responsibility for combat to the South Vietnamese forces.