White House officials were traveling with the president from Canada to Kansas City, Mo., and were not available for comment.
In today's speech, Bush will compare the occupation of Iraq to that of Japan after World War II and the continued defense of South Korea, arguing that they are similar "ideological struggles." He will say that the U.S. presence in Iraq will help bring democracy and prosperity to the Middle East, as it did in Asia.
"Prevailing in this struggle is essential to our future as a nation," the president will argue, according to the excerpts. "The question now before us comes down to this: Will today's generation of Americans resist the deceptive allure of retreat -- and do in the Middle East what veterans in this room did in Asia?"
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized Bush's speech, saying the president "continues to play the American people for fools."
"The only relevant analogy of Vietnam to Iraq is this: In Iraq, just as we did in Vietnam, we are clinging to a central government that does not and will not enjoy the support of the people," he said. "Unless the president acts on that lesson from history and works toward a federal solution in Iraq, there is no prospect that when we leave, we will leave anything stable behind.
"In fact, the president's policies are pushing us toward another Saigon moment -- with helicopters fleeing the roof of our embassy -- which he says he wants to avoid.
"Al Qaeda in Iraq didn't exist before we invaded. It is a Bush fulfilling prophecy," he added.
Historian Robert Dallek, who has written about the comparisons of Iraq to Vietnam, accused Bush of twisting history. "It just boggles my mind, the distortions I feel are perpetrated here by the president," he said in a telephone interview.
"We were in Vietnam for 10 years. We dropped more bombs on Vietnam than we did in all of World War II in every theater. We lost 58,700 American lives, the second-greatest loss of lives in a foreign conflict. And we couldn't work our will," he said.
"What is Bush suggesting? That we didn't fight hard enough, stay long enough? That's nonsense. It's a distortion," he continued. "We've been in Iraq longer than we fought in World War II. It's a disaster, and this is a political attempt to lay the blame for the disaster on his opponents. But the disaster is the consequence of going in, not getting out."
Bush has long compared the Iraq war to World War II. In a 2004 speech at the Air Force Academy, he said, "Like other totalitarian movements, the terrorists seek to impose a grim vision in which dissent is crushed, and every man and woman must think and live in colorless conformity."
Bush has usually sidestepped comparisons of Iraq and Vietnam. When he has mentioned Vietnam, he usually emphasizes that the conflicts are dissimilar.
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maura.reynolds@latimes.com
james.gerstenzang@latimes.com
Reynolds reported from Washington, Gerstenzang from Kansas City, Mo., and Montebello, Canada.
