HANOI — White House officials from President Bush on down bristle at the idea that the war in Iraq bears any parallels with the Vietnam War, which ended with the United States' dramatic evacuation of its embassy in 1975.
But as Bush and Vietnamese officials have focused on the future during the president's weekend visit here, that bitter past continues to intrude.
Arriving in Hanoi on Friday, the president and Laura Bush were driven past Truc Bach, the lake where in 1967 a young Navy pilot named John McCain was rescued by residents after he bailed out of his A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft on a bombing run over Hanoi. McCain's rescue led to his 5 1/2 -year imprisonment in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" jail for prisoners of war.
"He's a friend of ours," Bush said of the man who challenged him for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination. "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 president's motorcade route Saturday took him within sight of the mausoleum that entombs the remains of Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary leader who ended French colonial rule after World War II and then led the communist North Vietnam against the United States.
Bush also made a brief, low-key visit to a U.S. military office. The small staff investigates sites throughout the country in search of remains of American troops; more than 1,300 still are listed as missing from the 10-year U.S. military operations here. He spent about 15 minutes there and made no public comment.
In reporting on the president's day, his national security advisor, Stephen J. Hadley, mentioned the visit only as an afterthought.
The Vietnam War is still an emotional benchmark for many older Americans. This administration is focused on another war.
That war, too, continued to intrude: As Hadley spoke, on either side of his lectern two large television screens tuned to CNN showed a documentary displaying one bloodied and mangled body after another. It was about combat medicine in Iraq.
Bill Clinton's visit to Vietnam six years ago was the first by a U.S. president. His welcome was effusive from young and old on Hanoi's streets. He worked the crowds as though he were running for office. He visited Vietnam National University, ate lunch among Vietnamese at a diner, and held a round-table discussion with young people about the Information Age.
