 Owing to these very different backgrounds, Laird was considerably more sensitive to American public opinion while Kissigner belonged more to the traditional "Primat der Aussenpolitik" school which saw foreign policy as belonging only to a small elite.In the summer of 1969, Laird told the press that Vietnamization was the Nixon administration's "highest priority" while also stating that the U.S troops in South Vietnam were moving from "maximum pressure" to "protective reaction".In September 1969, when Kissinger drafted Duck Hook, a plan which in his own words called for a "savage, punishing blow" against North Vietnam in form of renewed bombing, Laird persuaded Nixon to reject the plan.