Rice, on Her Way to Vietnam, Sees No Parallels Between That War and Iraq

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 15 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that she saw no historical parallels between the war in Iraq and America’s last lengthy war — the two-decade entanglement in Vietnam that caused many Americans to question the involvement of United States forces in a conflict thousands of miles away and to demand that those forces be brought home.

Speaking to reporters aboard her plane enroute to Vietnam for a regional economic forum, Ms. Rice said Iraq is a quite different situation.

“Historical parallels of that kind are not very helpful, and I don’t think they happen to be right,” she said. “This is different set of circumstances with different stakes for the United States.”

Ms. Rice, who, along with President Bush, is making her first trip to Vietnam, characterized the Iraq war as a fight between an Iraqi government and insurgents. Another difference, she said, is that in Iraq, America has fielded a volunteer army, without resorting to a draft. Analogies between Vietnam and Iraq "are not only faulty, but also not healthy,” she said.

But for Ms. Rice and Mr. Bush, who is flying separately to Vietnam for the forum, the parallels between Iraq and Vietnam will be hard to escape, particularly because the trip is coming so soon after last week’s midterm elections. Indeed, Ms. Rice delayed her trip to Vietnam by a day to meet with administration officials about what to do about the deteriorating situation in Iraq.

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