What the above answer states is true. However, the whole world understood that the United States had sustained a humiliating defeat. It was also understood by intelligent people that the U.S. was selling out the South Vietnamese government because, if they couldn't beat the North with the Americans, they certainly couldn't beat them without American support. The U.S. never had to surrender to the North Vietnamese. They were free to pull out. But I think the biggest problem was that the North Vietnamese held many thousands of American prisoners. Unless the U.S. had a deal with the North Vietnamese they might never be able to get these prisoners released. The soldiers, and particularly the airmen who were dumping all the bombs, napalm, and Agent Orange, could be put on show trials for war crimes and executed one by one over a period of years. It was obvious that the U.S...
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agreed to pull out if they had the promise that every American prisoner would be returned. That was what actually happened. Then it was a big surprise to nobody that the North swarmed all over the South and turned Saigon into Ho Chi Min City in a very short time.
President Nixon tried to give “ownership” of the war back to the government of South Vietnam because he saw it as a way to extricate the US from the war, getting “peace with honor” for the US.
By the time that he became president, Nixon had decided that the US needed to get out of the war. However, he did not want to be seen as giving up or surrendering. Therefore, he had to find a way to leave Vietnam without appearing to surrender. Vietnamization seemed like a good way to do this. It made sense to require the Vietnamese to fight their own war. It also let the US leave without actually surrendering to the North Vietnamese.
In this way, Vietnamization was a good cover that would allow the US to withdraw without appearing to give up the fight.
Why did President Nixon try to return control to the Vietnamese government?
The original question had to be edited as only one question can be asked. The subsequent questions were interesting ones, and I would suggest resubmitting them. Nixon's plan to give ownership back to the Vietnamese was rooted in a couple of ideas. The first was that the war was growing in unpopularity. The rising casualty count, the lack of definable and tangible success, and the belief that the government was lying to its citizens all fueled resentment towards the war in Vietnam. Nixon understood that Vietnam all but finished off President Johnson because of its lack of definition. As he was elected into office under the "Peace with honor" notion, Nixon and his advisors figured that the Vietnamization was the best approach in which Nixon could say to the public that he ended the war and did so without the dreaded "cut and run" label.
In embracing Vietnamization, Nixon was able to make a compelling case to the American public that he was giving ownership of the war back to the Vietnamese. This became a very compelling point with the American public and justified why Nixon embraced it:
The key new element in our strategy was a plan for the complete withdrawal of all American combat forces from Vietnam. Americans needed tangible evidence that we were winding down the war, and the South Vietnamese needed to be given more responsibility for their defense .... As South Vietnamese forces became stronger, the rate of American withdrawal could become greater.
Vietnamization accomplished a couple of elements. The first was it forced the South Vietnamese government which had become accustomed to American forces bearng the brunt of the military action, to be more responsible in accepting the consequences of the conflict. At the same time, it was a way in which American military presence could be dialed down, pleasing the American public and honoring military obligations in the region. In this, one can see why Nixon sought to give ownership of the war back to the Vietnamese.