The Chickenhawk-in-Chief finallys gets to Viet Nam

“Did I think about going to the Army post and saying ‘Send me to Vietnam?’ ” Mr. Bush asked, describing his own outlook in 1968. “Not really. I wanted to fly, and that was the adventure I was seeking.”

Now he can claim that he has been to Vietnam. Ha ha, 30 years later after the war ended!

Clinton built a $300 million surplus while W has a $8.5 trillion national debt - truly a "W"orthless trillion-dollar man.

talk72000 wrote:

Now he can claim that he has been to Vietnam. Ha ha, 30 years later after the war ended!

Which is still more that his predecessor can claim, you know, the draft dodger in chief.

i think it's funny that the administration is trying to spin the success of vietnam as an economic power after it's war with america with what it is trying to do in iraq

good strategy

iraq should be a wonderful place in, oh let's see, 2048 (10 years or so of war, 50,000+ dead soldiers, 1 embarrasing retreat, 30 years later a viable success)

talk72000 wrote:

Now he can claim that he has been to Vietnam. Ha ha, 30 years later after the war ended!

Which is still more that his predecessor can claim, you know, the draft dodger in chief.

the mood of this trip could not have been more different from the visit of another president, Bill Clinton, exactly six years ago this weekend, when he seemed to be everywhere.

And while the difference says much about the personalities of two presidents who both famously avoided serving in the war here, it reveals a lot about how significantly times have changed — and perhaps why America’s “public diplomacy” seems unable to shift into gear.

In 2000, tens of thousands of Hanoi’s residents poured into the streets to witness the visit of the first American head of state since the end of the Vietnam War. Mr. Clinton toured the thousand-year-old Temple of Literature, grabbed lunch at a noodle shop, argued with Communist Party leaders about American imperialism and sifted the earth for the remains of a missing airman.

On Saturday, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, conceded that the president had not come into direct contact with ordinary Vietnamese, but said that they connected anyway.

“If you’d been part of the president’s motorcade as we’ve shuttled back and forth,” he said, reporters would have seen that “the president has been doing a lot of waving

i think it's funny that the administration is trying to spin the success of vietnam as an economic power after its war with america with what it is trying to do in iraq

Others questioned whether the United States was so fixated on the Middle East that China had been given free rein to spread its influence.

"Golly gee, I love this oriental trip, (he, he, he,) I even got to pose with a bust of my favorite movie star - Charlie Chan!" - George W. Bush

djjd62 wrote:

i think it's funny that the administration is trying to spin the success of vietnam as an economic power after its war with america with what it is trying to do in iraq

from the same article I just linked

Quote:

Others questioned whether the United States was so fixated on the Middle East that China had been given free rein to spread its influence.

Looks like China gets the credit for Vietnam.