A week-long trip to Asia takes the President to the capital of his least favorite analogy. But he says a lost war shows the necessity of steadfastness in a new one.

BY MIKE ALLEN/HANOI

Around President Bush's White House the past three years, "Vietnam" has been viewed, by and large, as an emotional buzzword used by journalists to draw comparison to the Iraq war that the administration views as inapt and inaccurate. In the Rose Garden in June, Ann Compton of ABC News asked the President if he saw, a parallel between what's going on in Iraq now and Vietnam. "No," the President replied, pointing out that Iraq has a government chosen in an election that drew 12 million voters. "Obviously," he added, "there is sectarian violence, but this is, in many ways, religious in nature, and I don't see the parallels."

Now, he does. Not the quagmire alleged by the critics, of course. But as the President arrived Friday morning for three days in Vietnam, Jennifer Loven of The Associated Press asked if this nation of river deltas holds any lessons for the debate over Iraq. "Yes," he answered. "One lesson is, is that we tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take a while." Bush went on to say that Iraq is part of a "great struggle" between "radicals and extremists, versus people who want to live in peace." He said overcoming "the ideology of hate" with freedom is going to take a long time. "Yet, the world that we live in today is one where they want things to happen immediately," he said.

The President said at a later appearance that he has been "reading and studying" about the country. "One of the most poignant moments of the drive in," he said at the Sheraton Hanoi, "was passing the lake where John McCain got pulled out of the lake. And he's a friend of ours; he suffered a lot as a result of his imprisonment, and yet, we passed the place where he was, literally, saved, in one way, by the people pulling him out." The Arizona Senator paid a visit in 2000 to Truc Bach Lake where, as a Navy lieutenant commander, he had ejected after being hit by a Soviet-made surface-to-air missile during his 23rd bombing run over North Vietnam. He was taken to the "Hanoi Hilton" and was a prisoner of war for five years, two of them in solitary confinement. The attack is now commemorated with a stone marker emblazoned "U.S." that was visible from the presidential motorcade.

From Bush's window, he could also see bicycles and motorcycles laden with precisely balanced baskets, buckets and bundles that would tax some small cars. Even Vietnam's capital city remains relatively primitive, with hundreds of individual power lines running along the street like great skeins of spaghetti. Bush is in Hanoi for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and he was greeted at an arrival ceremony at the European-style Presidential Palace, which originally was the living and working quarters for the French Governor General of Indochina. A young girl presented the President with a bouquet at the ceremony, and he bent over to kiss her before reviewing military troops. The First Lady, Laura Bush, accompanied him and got a big bouquet from a young boy. Outside the gates, four U.S. flags and four Vietnamese flags marked the historic visit.

Within hours of his arrival, Bush was photographed at the palace in front of a huge bust of Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary Communist leader. Bush planned a meeting with the Secretary General of the Communist Party, at party headquarters. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said the meeting was being held because Vietnam is a Communist state. Snow told reporters aboard Air Force One that the Iraq and Vietnam wars are "not comparable" situations, and said he had not heard any concerns from Republicans about the President appearing with trappings of the Communist Party. "Vietnam is now making a transition, we're certainly encouraging that reform in many ways," Snow said, noting that the President will be discussing his "freedom agenda" for encouraging democracy abroad. It was that agenda that got the President into Iraq. Bush plans a breezy, aggressive schedule for the new few days, eager to show he can salute progress in Vietnam without getting bogged down in suggestions that he may be stuck in one of his own.

After five days of giddiness, Democrats express dismay that their new House leader has thrown herself into the fight to become her Number 2, creating a potentially lose-lose situation where she could either be defeated in her first public contest since the election, or brand herself as a dove.

BY MIKE ALLEN/WASHINGTON

As she awaited her new grandchild after her election-night triumph, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi was lauded as one of the most consequential Democrats in history and treated as a foreign head of state at the White House, where she got the big chair in front of the Oval Office fireplace. But the dour Republicans and worried Democrats have switched places, however momentarily, now that she has unexpectedly injected herself into the bitter race to be her underling, the House Majority Leader. "This is the first time I've ever seen a leader insert themselves like this," said a veteran of many Democratic leadership races. Pelosi's camp says it's like a high-school election and won't be a defining moment for her leadership.

It all happened with a five-paragraph letter circulated to the press on Sunday night. The current number two in House leadership, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), says he has enough votes to score the majority-leader slot when Democrats meet on Thursday. But he has been challenged by Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a decorated Vietnam War veteran who stunned colleagues last year by calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Pelosi wrote a letter endorsing Murtha, noting pointedly in the first sentence that he had asked for it. Praising his "courageous leadership" on Iraq "strong voice for national security," she wrote that she is "pleased to support" his candidacy.

A Democratic strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity because of ties to both sides, said the next 24 hours will be crucial. "Murtha needed to change the dynamic because he was losing," the strategist said. "Steny had a majority before the letter -- he needs to hold on to his people. The question is, Does she do more than the letter, like make calls?"

The incoming Speaker credits Murtha for changing the debate on Iraq, which helped make Democrats a credible alternative to Republicans in the election, according to an official familiar with her position. "She also places a high premium on loyalty," the official said. "When he asked for her public endorsement, she was going to give it to him. He's with the left of the caucus on one issue -- the war. Other than that, he's far to the right." The official added that the squabble will not affect long-term public perceptions of the Speaker-to be. "This is like a high-school election," the official said. "People inside the Beltway will buzz about it for a week, but then no one will remember what happened."

Hoyer says he has commitments from 21 out of the 41 freshmen who will definitely be seated, and more than half the members of the caucus. He released a statement Sunday night saying: "Nancy told me some time ago that she would personally support Jack. I respect her decision as the two are very close."

Even so, many Democrats thought she would stay out of the race. "We had a great deal of unity last week and encouraging Murtha to run against Hoyer really threatens to fray that unity at a time when we want to project an image of being strong and together," said one Democratic aide. "It doesn't bode well for our first 100 hours. To be a majority party, you have to bring disparate groups together, and she's been given credit for being very good at that. If she departs from that record or that approach, it's harder to stay a majority."

The contest is complicated because it is more personal than it is ideological. Republicans want to label Pelosi a San Francisco liberal, while Murtha is pro-gun and pro-life. "People were surprised that she would so publicly endorse Murtha, particularly because it could end up hurting her," said a Democrat not aligned with either side. "She could lose her first big fight, which is not good for her leadership. But if she didn't publicly support Murtha, it would feed into the perception of her as a liberal - something she has been trying to change over the past couple of months in trying to appear moderate."

Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), an early Hoyer backer, tells TIME that he doesn't think the letter will change votes. "We all believed that Nancy would support Mr. Murtha because of their long personal relationship," he said. "That was all factored in before over half the members committed to Mr. Hoyer. This doesn't diminish Nancy's value as our leader. Leadership races are much more personal than a legislative issue. These are very personal relationships that members build up over time." Of the current leadership team, he added, "I don't know why we would break up something that was so successful."

Another Democratic member said: "There's no one in the caucus who didn't know who Nancy Pelosi was going to vote for."

Hoyer poses a competing power base to Pelosi, and they have not had warm relations. "She wants to purge the leadership of people who disagree with her," said a Democratic official with a front-row seat. "It's about people she can personally control. Hoyer is an excellent public face for the party. She's more a behind-the-scenes player."

Republicans have their own tense leadership battle going on, but the Pelosi letter provided a respite from all the adulation for the Democrats. Said one top Republican aide: "Governing ain't easy."