President Bush visits Vietnam; U.S. officials admit trip is "poorly timed."

President Bush made a trip to Vietnam on November 17th, in a visit that brought about discussion of wars past and present.

The war in Iraq is often compared to the Vietnam War, and the parallels between today’s war and the war of nearly 40 years ago are not hard to distinguish. The nightly news is filled with reports of young men, many just out of high school, whose lives are tragically ended at the hands of a vague enemy. We are fighting an enemy so passionate about their cause that they will stop at nothing to achieve their objective. Yet, Americans are unsure of exactly who our enemy is, what their objective is, and why the United States needs to play a role in the conflict at all.

The Bush administration acknowledged the notion that there are similarities between the two wars:

In private, some White House officials concede that Mr. Bush’s visit to Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, scheduled many months ago, is proving to be spectacularly poorly timed, because of all the uncomfortable parallels between the two wars.

For example, just as Lyndon B. Johnson did in 1968, Mr. Bush has ousted his longtime defense secretary and nominated a realist with “fresh eyes” to replace him. Just like President Johnson in 1968, he is conducting a broad rethinking of strategy, and is hearing options he does not like.

President Bush asserts that there are major differences between the two wars, namely the fact that there is no draft, and that he does not “micromanage his generals” like Lyndon B. Johnson.

The President cites one lesson learned in Vietnam: “We’ll win unless we quit.” He remains focused on “staying the course,” though that course will likely change between the introduction of a new Secretary of Defense and the legislation of a Democratic Congress.