The Ghosts of Vietnam

The topic of Vietnam is both an invited guest and an uninvited guest at the White House today.

In the first visit of its kind since the end of the Vietnam War 30 years ago, the Vietnamese prime minister came to the White House this morning and was warmly welcomed by President Bush into the Oval Office for a meeting that marked a decade of normalized relations.

But considerably less welcome has been the increasingly frequent talk about the historical parallels between the Vietnam War and the current situation in Iraq.

And unlike the prime minister, the Vietnam war talk is likely to stick around for a while.

Consider Republican North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones, who not long ago championed "freedom fries" as a slap at the French for opposing the war in Iraq, but who told Tim Funk of the Charlotte Observer last week that what's on his mind now is Vietnam.

" 'When I think about what happened in Vietnam -- we lost 58,000 -- I wonder, Wouldn't it have been nice if, two years into the war, some representatives would have said, "Mr. President, where we going?" ' "

Jones last week introduced a resolution calling on Bush to set a timetable for bringing U.S. troops home.

Susan Page , writing in USA Today, recently quoted Ronald Spector, a military historian at George Washington University, as saying that the pattern of public opinion on Iraq -- strong support for the first two years that then erodes -- is reminiscent of the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.

Supporters of the war -- like Lt. Gen. James Conway , director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- also raise the specter of Vietnam, though as a case study in why not to set withdrawal deadlines, and why public support for the troops is so important.

USA Today's Steven Komarow talks to a few old-timer helicopter pilots in Iraq and finds: "If there are parallels between Iraq and Vietnam, these graying soldiers and the other Vietnam veterans serving here offer a unique perspective. They say they are more optimistic this time: They see a clearer mission than in Vietnam, a more supportive public back home and an Iraqi population that seems to be growing friendlier toward Americans."

But the Cunning Realist blog recently listed 15 similarities between the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq, among them: