The President visits the capital of his least favorite analogy. But he says a lost war shows the necessity of steadfastness in a new one.
When discussion in President Bush's White House has turned to Vietnam, it has usually been by way of what the Administration deems an inaccurate comparison to the Iraq war. Last June, in answer to a reporter's question of whether he drew a parallel between events in Iraq and the Vietnam war, he said , "this is, in many ways, religious in nature, and I don't see the parallels."
That may have changed. Not that the President now sees the quagmire alleged by war critics, of course. But asked on arrival in Vietnam for an economic summit whether this country holds any lessons for the debate over Iraq, the President answered: "Yes. One lesson is, is that we tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take a while." Bush went on to say that Iraq is part of a "great struggle" between "radicals and extremists, versus people who want to live in peace." He said overcoming "the ideology of hate" is going to take a long time. "Yet, the world that we live in today is one where they want things to happen immediately," he said.
The President said at a later appearance that he has been "reading and studying" about the country. "One of the most poignant moments of the drive in," he said at the Sheraton Hanoi, "was passing the lake where John McCain got pulled out of the lake. And he's a friend of ours; he suffered a lot as a result of his imprisonment, and yet, we passed the place where he was, literally, saved, in one way, by the people pulling him out." The Arizona Senator paid a visit in 2000 to Truc Bach Lake where, as a Navy lieutenant commander, he had ejected after being hit by a Soviet-made surface-to-air missile during his 23rd bombing run over North Vietnam. He was taken to the detention facility known as the "Hanoi Hilton" and was a prisoner of war for five years, two of them in solitary confinement. The downing of his aircraft is now commemorated with a stone marker emblazoned "U.S." that was visible from the presidential motorcade.
From Bush's window, he could also see bicycles and motorcycles laden with precisely balanced baskets, buckets and bundles that would tax some small cars. Even Vietnam's capital city remains relatively primitive, with hundreds of individual power lines running along the street like great skeins of spaghetti.
Within hours of his arrival, Bush was photographed at the palace in front of a huge bust of Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary Communist leader. Bush planned a meeting with the Secretary General of the Communist Party, at party headquarters. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said the meeting was being held because Vietnam is a Communist state. Snow told reporters aboard Air Force One that the Iraq and Vietnam wars are "not comparable" situations, and said he had not heard any concerns from Republicans about the President appearing with trappings of the Communist Party. "Vietnam is now making a transition, we're certainly encouraging that reform in many ways," Snow said, noting that the President will be discussing his "freedom agenda" for encouraging democracy abroad. It was that agenda that got the President into Iraq. Bush plans a breezy, aggressive schedule for the new few days, eager to show he can salute progress in Vietnam without getting bogged down in suggestions that he may be stuck in one of his own.
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