McCaffrey added: "Whereas when you look at Powell and Armitage and others, as young men they saw firsthand the results in shattered lives and failed policies of the Washington elite who couldn't listen to their own internal feedback mechanisms. That provides astonishing insight."
Asked about the contrasting lack of combat experience at the top of the Pentagon's civilian leadership, Bryan Whitman, a senior Defense Department spokesman, said: "It is a curious observation that doesn't seem to be particularly relevant.
"Everyone has brought their experiences to the table in the execution of U.S. government policies in Iraq. It would be inappropriate to view operations in Iraq as anything other than a government-wide effort."
The specter of Vietnam, nonetheless, could make the next phase of U.S. involvement in Iraq look significantly different, some U.S. military analysts say.
"From Vietnam, one thing burned into our souls is that just winning the battles is not enough. We did that in Vietnam. We could take any piece of terrain and defeat the forces in the field. But it wasn't enough," said retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, former head of Central Command. "In Iraq, it's exactly the same problem. It's: Are we improving our environment, and are we providing security and protection for the people and infrastructure?"
The emergence of a generation of Vietnam veterans as important players in Iraq comes as the Vietnam War has emerged as a major issue in U.S. politics, partly because of Iraq but also because it defines a personal difference between the two major presidential candidates. President Bush did not serve in Vietnam; Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) did.
The Bush administration is intent on avoiding comparisons of U.S. policy in Iraq with Vietnam, in part to avoid the implication that Iraq also will become an unwinnable quagmire. "Neither Ambassador Negroponte nor Jim Jeffrey has the time to discuss, or sees any connection between, their experience of 30 to 40 years ago in Vietnam and what they are doing today," embassy spokesman Robert Callahan said in an e-mail.
But State Department officials acknowledge that they looked closely at the Vietnam era in creating and staffing the new embassy, the largest in U.S. history.
"In preparing the new embassy, we looked at historic cases in which we had both a large military presence and a large embassy for lessons learned about how you can manage the two in a productive way and avoid conflict. Vietnam was definitely an important example," said a senior State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Vietnam experience will also be valuable in avoiding some of the fatal aspects of U.S. policy in that war, particularly Washington's relationship with the South Vietnamese government, U.S. officials say.
"Maybe it's Vietnam, maybe it's just common sense, but Negroponte has been outspoken about giving the new Iraqi interim government space to do its thing and not suffocating it with too strong an embrace," the State Department official added. "In South Vietnam, the question was whether the government was just a puppet of the United States. In contrast, Negroponte is saying we're not in Iraq to be an imperial overlord."
U.S. officials also hope the diplomats' Vietnam experience will ease the tensions that often characterized relations between U.S. commanders and the Coalition Provisional Authority during the occupation. Citing his Vietnam stint, Negroponte said during his April confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he is "no stranger to the question of working on a teamwork basis with our colleagues in uniform."
"One of the lessons in looking at past experiences was that you have to have close and good personal relations between the embassy and the military," added the State Department official. "You have to be communicating well and understanding their mission and coordinating all the time. This is where this group's experience is really going to pay off, in that they understand the constraints and imperatives of the military. That sensibility, that sensitivity will go a long way to ensure smoothness and synchronicity."
Staff writer Thomas E. Ricks contributed to this report.
