HANOI: Vietnamese, focused on a brighter future, don't understand why Americans can't leave the Vietnam War in the past. US President George W. Bush arrived in Hanoi on Friday, embarking on a visit that has unleashed yet another fevered debate in his homeland about the war's lessons.
Hanoi residents would rather talk about building business and trade between the two former foes. But when the subject turns to war, many are quick to say that the American president erred in Iraq because he failed to learn a fundamental lesson of the Vietnam conflict: All the firepower in the world can't defeat people determined to fend off a foreign invader.
''Even though the Americans were more powerful with all their massive weapons, the main factor in war is the people,'' said Huynh Tuyet, 71, a North Vietnamese veteran who fought against the French and later had his hand blown off fighting the Americans.''The Vietnamese people were every determined,'' Tuyet said. ''We would not give up. That's why we won.''
America will suffer the same fate in Iraq, Tuyet said. ''Iraq belongs to the Iraqis. The Americans will fail there, just like they failed here. It's obvious.''
Hanoi gave Bush a polite but restrained welcome on Friday. People lined up along the streets and waved, but withheld the boisterous response they gave President Bill Clinton in 2000. Most seemed drawn more by curiosity than devotion, unlike the massive, joyous crowds who stayed up late for Clinton's unannounced midnight arrival in Hanoi.
But many agreed with Bui Quang Thanh, 42, a security guard who welcomed Bush's visit because it symbolized closer ties between the two countries and brought the promise of increased business and trade.
''A lot of American business executives are coming with Bush, and they will create more jobs for Vietnamese workers,'' Thanh said. ''Everyone is very happy about that.''
For Thanh, the presence of a US president does not stir up memories of old conflicts.
''Vietnam has left the war in the past,'' he said.
Those like Nguyen Thi Nga, 52, who have horrific personal memories of war, prefer not to relive them. When she was 17, Nga and her family of eight, including her 4-year-old sister, huddled in a makeshift bomb shelter dug beneath their Hanoi home while US bombs rained down on the city.
The Christmas bombing reduced their home to rubble.
Nga, selling soup Friday at a sidewalk stand across from the American Club of Hanoi, said she thinks the lessons of the Vietnam War are clear: People fighting for self-determination make a formidable foe.
''The Vietnamese didn't want to live under the domination of a foreign invader,'' she said. ''I don't even understand what Marxism-Leninism is. We were fighting for our freedom _ and for the freedom of our children and grandchildren.''
She finds it ironic that the American people seem more preoccupied than the Vietnamese with what people here call ''The American War.''
''It doesn't make any sense,'' Nga said. ''It seems strange that the Americans keep talking about the war. The Americans invaded Vietnam and left. We're the ones who had to live with the consequences.''—AP
HANOI: Vietnamese, focused on a brighter future, don't understand why Americans can't leave the Vietnam War in the past. US President George W. Bush arrived in Hanoi on Friday, embarking on a visit that has unleashed yet another fevered debate in his homeland about the war's lessons.
