In Hanoi, Bush Talks About Iraq

Arriving in Vietnam Friday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, President Bush urged a tough line in implementing U.N. sanctions against North Korea for its recent nuclear test.

"It's important for the world to see that the Security Council resolutions which were passed are implemented" against North Korea, said President Bush. "So part of my discussions will be how we fully implement those sanctions that the world has asked for."

In meetings at APEC this week, the U.S., Japan and South Korea have been trying to coordinate strategy ahead of next month's expected resumption of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program. The North announced it would end a boycott of the talks after its Oct. 9 nuclear test.

President Bush is the second U.S. president to visit since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, and got a somewhat subdued welcome by the crowds in the city, who seemed more curious than enthused as the Bush motorcade passed by.

It's a contrast to the rock star-type welcome given to President Clinton in 2000, but Mr. Clinton came in different conditions – having been the one to normalized relations with Vietnam.

President Bush is encountering a country where many with long memories deeply disapprove of the U.S. invasion of Iraq - even as they yearn for continued economic progress to stamp out still-rampant poverty.

With all traffic halted, many Hanoi residents merely gaped from their motorbikes. Other clusters appeared to have been drawn out of storefronts by the rarity of many-vehicled convoy. But while a few waved and smiled, most looked on impassively.

Huynh Tuyet, 71, a North Vietnamese veteran who fought against the French and later had his hand blown off fighting the Americans, recalled his own lesson about that time of war.

"Even though the Americans were more powerful with all their massive weapons, the main factor in war is the people," he said. "The Vietnamese people were very determined. We would not give up. That's why we won."

President Bush was also thinking back to the Vietnam War, one of the most divisive for Americans, and one which has been in many American's minds in the past few years, as disagreements continue over the war in Iraq.

Speaking in Hanoi Friday, Mr. Bush said the lesson from the Vietnam War is that it will take time for freedom to trump hatred in Iraq

In a day of meetings with Vietnamese leaders, the talk of Vietnam-Iraq parallels gave way to a focus on areas of cooperation. Those include continuing military-to-military links, work on AIDS and bird flu, trade, and cooperation on information about more than 1,300 U.S. military personnel still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.

President Bush is to visit the U.S. military's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hanoi on Saturday.

He met first with Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet at the bright orange presidential palace and then with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung next door - both times sitting under large bronze busts of Ho Chi Minh, the victorious North's revolutionary communist leader. Later, he was dropping by the ruling Communist Party's headquarters to see the general secretary, and being feted at a state banquet.

A baby boomer who came of age during the Vietnam era and spent the war stateside as a member of the Texas Air National Guard, Mr. Bush said he was amazed by the sights in Hanoi. He said he found it hopeful that the U.S. and Vietnam have reconciled differences after a war that ended 31 years ago with the fall to the communists of the Washington-backed regime in Saigon.

"My first reaction is history has a long march and societies change and relationships can constantly be altered to the good," President Bush said after seeing signs of both poverty and the commerce produced by Asia's fastest-growing economy.

His motorcade also took him past Truc Bach lake, where then-Lt. Cmdr. John McCain, now a Republican senator from Arizona, was captured after parachuting from his damaged warplane to spend more than five years as a prisoner of war.

The president said there is much to be learned from the Vietnam War - the longest conflict in U.S. history.

"It's just going to take a long period of time for the ideology that is hopeful - and that is an ideology of freedom - to overcome an ideology of hate," said President Bush, referring to the war in Iraq, after having lunch with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, an American ally in Iraq, Vietnam and other conflicts.

"We'll succeed," said Mr. Bush, "unless we quit."

Among the issues high on the agenda for the APEC summit, in addition to nuclear weapons and the war in Iraq are efforts to restart stalled world trade talks, a U.S.-backed proposal to establish a Pacific Rim free-trade zone, and other issues such as global warming.

On Friday, business leaders praised communist Vietnam for its stunning progress in reforming its economy and joining the world trading system, as Hanoi showcased its transformation from a war-ravaged backwater to a fast-growing exporter.

"Vietnam has demonstrated to the world its capacity for quantum leaps," said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft Corp.

The praise has translated into opportunities for Vietnam, which this week signed three deals with U.S. companies worth $1.64 billion.

Jump-starting the collapsed Doha round of world trade talks is also a top priority for Bush and other leaders. The talks broke up in July in a U.S.-Europe dispute over agricultural subsidies, and APEC members have called this week for moves to salvage the negotiations.

The former head of the World Trade Organization, Supachai Panitchpakdi, on Friday urged Doha round trade negotiators to lower their demands and take small steps in a bid to break the deadlock.

"I don't think the (world) can afford to stand by and let the Doha round go down the drain," Supachai, who now heads of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, told more than 1,000 business executives gathered in Hanoi.

Spurred by exhortations from APEC, the WTO's 149 members met Thursday in Geneva for the first time in four months to discuss the possibility of resuming talks.

Although APEC is primarily an economic conference, global security concerns - particularly North Korea - are high-priority items for the summit and have dominated a series of meetings among officials this week.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to hold separate bilateral meetings with leaders involved in the North Korea talks, including President Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and possibly South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun.

It would be the Japanese leader's first meeting with Mr. Bush since the Japanese prime minister took office in September.

"The Japan-U.S. alliance is the foundation of Japan's security and diplomacy. As a start, I plan to build relations of trust with President Bush," Abe said Friday before leaving Tokyo.

APEC, formed in 1989 as an economic forum, has rapidly expanded its agenda in recent years to cover political, security and even environmental and health issues. Its members comprise 45 percent of the world's trade and 41 percent of its population.