WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (AFP) - Voters stand in line for hours, braving terrorist threats to cast ballots, setting the stage for a new government to take power and winning glowing media coverage -- Iraq, 2005? Or Vietnam, 1967?
On September 5, 1967, two days after presidential elections brought Nguyen Van Thieu to power, officials at the White House's national security council set priorities for the new government.
"The first order of business should be formation of a new government. It should be broadly based," say the officials, according to State Department archives.
On September 8, then-president Lyndon Johnson wrote Thieu: "The election was a milestone along the path toward the goal you have set for yourselves -- a free, secure and peaceful Viet-Nam."
A day after the elections, the New York Times reported that "United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting."
In late 1967, there were roughly half a million US soldiers in South Vietnam, and victory over the communist north still seemed possible, until the security situation deteriorated sharply after Hanoi launched "Tet" offensive on January 31, 1968.
In early 2005, there are about 150,000 US troops in Iraq, and US President George W. Bush has rejected calls to set a timetable for their withdrawal, despite what he dubbed the "resounding success" of the elections on January 30.
"By participating in free elections, the Iraqi people have firmly rejected the anti-democratic ideology of the terrorists. They have refused to be intimidated by thugs and assassins. And they have demonstrated the kind of courage that is always the foundation of self-government," said Bush.
In 1967, Johnson wrote the newly elected Thieu that US "observers" at Vietnam's elections had told him of "the courage and determination of the Vietnamese people to remain free and to create their own political institutions in their own way."
In 2005, there are few surer ways to anger Bush aides than to point to any similarities between the situation in Iraq today and the US defeat in Vietnam, which saw the last Americans routed from Saigon in 1975.
Yet that war is far from forgotten by Americans, and played a role in the November 2 elections that saw Bush defeat Democratic Senator John Kerry to win a second four-year term.
Kerry sought to use his decorated Vietnam War veteran status for electoral advantage, but ended up attacked by other veterans who accused him of embellishing his record.
And the Republican president, who entered the Texas Air National Guard to avoid service in Vietnam, drew fire for allegedly shirking his duties.
When he looks to history for lessons, Bush prefers to point to the US campaign to rebuild Japan after the Allied victory in World War II.
"It wasn't all that long ago that Japan was a bitter enemy. And today, because Japan is a democracy and a free country, the Japanese are strong allies with the United States of America, and we're better off for it," he said at a January 26 press conference.
The Vietnam similarities extend all the way to Texas.
Bush likes to leave Washington behind and repair to his beloved ranch outside the tiny town Crawford. Fellow-Texan Johnson before him enjoyed similar retreats.
The State Department archives record that, on September 6, 1967, Johnson asked then-defense secretary Robert McNamara and secretary of state Dean Rusk whether he could get away for a long weekend in Texas.
"McNamara and Rusk said definitely no reason why he should not."
02/05/2005 13:29 GMT - AFP