(November 17, 2006)--President Bush says the lesson to be learned from the Vietnam War for Iraq is, “Don’t quit.”

Mr. Bush spoke to reporters Friday after arriving in Hanoi to attend the Asia-Pacific economic summit.

He has already held talks with Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch US ally.

And he's to meet later with Vietnam's communist leaders before a state dinner Friday night.

The White House has rejected comparisons between the Vietnam War and the conflict in Iraq.

But Mr. Bush says Vietnam does offer lessons; one of which, he says, is, "We'll succeed unless we quit."

Mr. Bush said Americans "tend to want there to be instant success in the world," whereas, he said, "Iraq is going to take a while."

The president said it's going to take "a long period of time" for the "ideology of freedom" to overcome "an ideology of hate."

The president has been focusing on areas of cooperation in a day of meetings with Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi.

Vietnam's most powerful leader, the communist party chief, says Mr. Bush has opened "a new page" in relations between the two countries.

Mr. Bush met in turn with Vietnam's president at the bright orange presidential palace, with the prime minister next door, and with the Communist leader at party headquarters in Hanoi.

Each time, the president and his hosts sat under a large bronze bust of Ho Chi Minh, the victorious North Vietnam's revolutionary communist leader.

Talks between Mr. Bush and the Vietnamese have touched on continuing military-to-military links, work on AIDS and bird flu and trade.

They've also discussed the ongoing search for information about the more than 1,300 US military personnel still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.

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