Vietnam War ‘fixation’ endures

This is the second of three reports based on the new book “Misunderestimated: The President Battles Terrorism, John Kerry and the Bush Haters” (Regan Books) by Bill Sammon, senior White House correspondent for The Washington Times.

President Bush’s top advisers think Democratic opponents and the press have an unhealthy obsession with the Vietnam War that threatens to dominate the re-election campaign against Sen. John Kerry.

White House political strategist Karl Rove said the Massachusetts Democrat and Vietnam veteran is trying to use his service to negate the president’s national-security credentials.

“He’s blatant about it,” Mr. Rove said of Mr. Kerry in a lengthy interview with The Washington Times. “He says: ‘Our Democratic Party has appeared weak on defense, and I can deal with that by demonstrating that I was a war hero in Vietnam.’ Which he was. I mean, the guy served with honor.”

But, the president’s most trusted political adviser added, “This is a guy who opposed every major weapons system we used to win the war on terror. This is a guy who, after we were struck in ‘93 at the World Trade Center bombing, said: ‘Let’s cut the intel budget.’

“This is a guy who says the war on terror is primarily a law-enforcement and intelligence matter. It ain’t. It’s a war.”

The press, meanwhile, raced to brand that war — first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq — a Vietnam “quagmire.” This mentality exasperated Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, a two-tour veteran of Vietnam.

“The press is fixated on Vietnam,” Mr. Powell said in an interview. “Everybody says, ‘Powell and all those generals still suffer from Vietnam Syndrome.’ No, I don’t.”

The Vietnam comparison by the press is “an incorrect characterization of the thinking within the U.S. military,” the secretary of state said. “I think the press is more sycophantic with respect to Vietnam than any general I’ve ever served with.”

White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., another military veteran, has his own observations on the phenomenon.

“I don’t think the press learned as much by what happened in Vietnam as the government did,” he said. “The people who are governing learned from what wasn’t done well in Vietnam — starting with political leadership making tactical decisions of war.”

Mr. Card added: “The media, in my opinion, kind of wants to relive the Vietnam experience.”

‘Unreconciled’

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