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President Bush yesterday opened the Oval Office to the highest-ranking official from communist Vietnam to visit since the end of the war that claimed the lives of more than 58,000 U.S. troops. Mr. Bush said he would visit Vietnam next year. The president and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai talked about the continuing search for the remains of missing American servicemen to close what Mr. Bush called a "sad chapter." But they focused their attention on Vietnam's desire to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as its human-rights record, which some lawmakers say remains tainted. "The Vietnamese economy...

President Bush yesterday welcomed a Vietnamese leader to the White House for the first time since the Vietnam War, praising Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and accepting his invitation to visit the communist country next year. No Vietnamese leader had visited the United States since US troops withdrew from the country after the war, which claimed 58,000 American soldiers' lives and left an estimated 3 million Vietnamese dead by the time South Vietnam fell to North Vietnamese troops in April 1975. Bush reiterated US support for Vietnam's bid to join the World Trade Organization and agreed to visit the nation...

PHAN VAN KHAI, VIETNAMESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Yes. He expressed his strong support for Vietnam's accession. I think that is because Vietnam's WTO membership would not only be in the interest of Vietnam, but also would be in the interest of America, of the American business community. BLITZER: Despite the bitterness of the war, he says it's time for both Americans and Vietnamese to move on. PHAN (through translator): The war ended more than 30 years ago. And we believe that it is now time for us to look towards the future. BLITZER: Still, he says it's not time...

On his US tour this week, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has presided over the purchase of four Boeing jetliners. He's shaken the hand of Microsoft chief Bill Gates and conferred with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Tuesday was the visit's topper: He was ushered into the Oval Office for a meeting with President Bush himself. So, what was the outcome of that war, again? Thirty years after the end of American involvement in Vietnam, that long-ago conflict remains a divisive factor in US politics. Vietnam itself isn't Switzerland: It allows little free speech, and religious expression has been...

Prime Minister Phan Van Khai arrived here Tuesday as the first leader of a united Vietnam to visit the United States, a trip marked by protesters outside the White House and a decidedly muted reception inside. It was a strikingly different occasion from the day when Bill Clinton made the first presidential trip to Vietnam five years ago, placing a coda on one of the most emotionally scarring wars in American history and opening a new start with the country. Then, tens of thousands of Vietnamese lined the streets to greet him. The crowds outside the White House were far...

Today, President Bush met with Vietnamese Prime Minister, Phan Van Khai in the Oval Office. Khai is visiting Washington to talk with the President about helping Vietnam join the World Trade Organization. It is the first such visit of a Vietnamese leader since the end of the war. He then addressed the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting via satellite (the text of which is given here ).The President also met with Republican leaders in the White House at a luncheon, accepting a compromise on Social Security, and refusing to back down on the nomination of John Bolton, urging Bill Frist...

PRESIDENT BUSH meets Vietnam's prime minister, Phan Van Khai, today at the White House, a mark of the transformation in U.S.-Vietnamese relations since the war that ended 30 years ago. Mr. Khai is visiting the United States with a large entourage of officials and business executives; he has toured a Boeing plant and dropped in on Bill Gates of Microsoft; he is due to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange and visit Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These symbols of warming relations are mostly welcome. But they should not obscure the fact that Vietnam...

President Bush, who is pushing for democratic reform around the globe, met Tuesday with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and praised the communist nation's economic progress, steps toward religious freedom and continued efforts to find the remains of U.S. troops who died in the Vietnam War. The two leaders talked about Vietnam's desire to join the World Trade Organization, business issues, human rights and signed an agreement that Bush said would make it easier for people to worship freely in Vietnam. "I want to thank the prime minister for his government's willingness to continue to work on finding the...

Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, whose visit to the White House today was the first by a Vietnamese leader since the end of the Vietnam War, said relations between the two nations have "entered a new stage of development." Mr. Khai and President Bush announced at the meeting that Mr. Bush will visit Vietnam next year, making him only the second American president, after Bill Clinton, to visit the country since the end of the war in 1975.

Bush supports Vietnam in WTO By Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush told Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai on Tuesday that he supports Vietnam's bid to join the World Trade Organization, in the first visit by the Vietnamese leader since the war. Bush also said he would visit Vietnam in 2006, the year it plays host to the annual summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. "We talked about our desire for Vietnam to join the WTO," Bush told reporters in an Oval Office picture-taking session after their talks. Vietnam has set a goal of joining the...

June 21, 2005 Tuesday TYPE: MEDIA AVAILABILITY LENGTH: 826 words HEADLINE: GEORGE W. BUSH HOLDS A MEDIA AVAILABILITY WITH PRIME MINISTER PHAN VAN KHAI OF VIETNAM SPEAKER: GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES LOCATION: WASHINGTON, D.C. BODY: PRESIDENT BUSH HOLDS A MEDIA AVAILABILITY WITH PRIME MINISTER PHAN VAN KHAI OF VIETNAM JUNE 21, 2005 SPEAKERS: GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES PHAN VAN KHAI, PRIME MINISTER OF VIETNAM BUSH: There will be two opening statements this morning. Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. I want to thank you for the constructive visit we just had. We discussed a...

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai pledged to combat software piracy as he met with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on Monday during the first visit to the United States by the leader of the Communist nation since the Vietnam war. Khai signed two agreements committing Vietnam to work with Microsoft in curbing theft of intellectual property rights and removing licensing barriers for used computers donated to schools, said Microsoft spokeswoman Tami Begasse. Vietnam, where Microsoft employs 10 people, had a software piracy rate of 92 percent in 2004, highest in the world, according to the Business Software...

I was watching King 5 News (that's the only Seattle new I get in Ketchikan) and the lead story was on the visit of the Vietnamese Prime Minister to Seattle. King 5 repeatedly described the protestors as "hostile" and portrayed the former "buddy" of Ho Chi Minh as merely trying to be diplomatic. I thought it was rather funny that the Communist came to Seattle (Commie capital of the West Coast). He must have felt very welcome. Meanwhile, the protestors, who were protesting the Communist rule and lack of freedom, were deemed "hostile." Only in Seattle are lovers of freedom...

The first day of a historic U.S. visit by Vietnam's prime minister had a rocky start yesterday, as hundreds of noisy protesters lined the street outside his Seattle hotel and others heckled him at an afternoon news conference. Images from Phan Van Khai's visit." Phan Van Khai, the first Vietnamese prime minister to visit the United States in the 30 years since the Vietnam War ended, yesterday kicked off his weeklong, multistate tour by urging Vietnamese emigres to help strengthen relations between the two nations. Vietnamese Americans must recognize they "have the same roots," Khai said through an interpreter. "The...

The prime minister of Vietnam was met by angry protests and sharp questions about human rights as he kicked off a historic week-long visit to America with a stop in Seattle yesterday. A contingent of about 300 Vietnamese emigres demonstrated outside a downtown hotel as the communist leader, Phan Van Khai, conducted a press conference inside, police said. A police spokeswoman, Christie-Lynne Bonner, described the demonstrators as "pro-democracy." Some critics of Mr. Khai carried banners denouncing the regime in Hanoi. The protesters shouted "Down with Communists" and some carried signs that read, "Khai Is Another Saddam Hussein," the Associated Press...

America welcomed a Vietnamese communist leader for the first time yesterday at the start of a visit to seal an unparalleled series of military and intelligence deals between the former enemies.Prime minister Phan Van Khai, once an official in the administration of the Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, will get the red carpet treatment throughout his visit. Arriving at the head of a 200-strong delegation, the 72-year-old Vietnamese leader will sign a series of deals underlining the extraordinary turnaround in relations. Vietnam will agree to despatch officers for training in the United States, to swap intelligence information and to...

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai of Vietnam will meet with President Bush. Today, New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, chairman of the Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations subcommittee, is holding a hearing on Vietnam's human-rights record. On Friday, Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said: "President Bush needs to send a clear message to Hanoi that progress on human rights will affect other aspects of Vietnam's evolving relationship with the United States." However, the State Department has declined to send a representative to Smith's congressional hearing. What message does this send? Human Rights Watch reports:...

Vietnam, U.S. to Improve Intelligence, Military Ties Premier Discusses Goals Before Visit By Ellen Nakashima Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A01 HANOI, June 16 -- Once enemies in battle, Vietnam and the United States will cooperate in the exchange of intelligence on terrorism and transnational crime, and Vietnam will send military officers for training in the United States, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said Thursday on the eve of the first U.S. trip by a top Vietnamese Communist leader. The intelligence and military cooperation agreements will be announced when Khai visits next week, marking the highest-level...

Official Visit of Prime Minister to occur June 21 Smith Convenes Vietnam Human Rights and Religious Freedom Hearing on Eve of Prime Minister's Visit When: 2:00 pm; Monday June 20, 2005 Where: 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC Who: Human Rights and Religious Freedom Experts US Commission on International Religious Freedom Commissioner, Nina Shea; Human Rights Watch; Boat People SOS; Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam; Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam Washington, D.C. --- Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations subcommittee, will convene a hearing June 20, to examine the government...

No, this is not a post about the Texas Air National Guard or the how the Vietnam War continues to haunt the national political psyche but of democracy and our national interests. Bruce Kesler, a columnist for the Augusta-Free Press alerted me to the underreported fact that Phan Van Khai, the Prime Minister of Vietnam, will be visiting the United States and meeting with President Bush- a key step in an increasingly warm relationship between Washington and Hanoi. The Prime Minister does not come empty-handed but instead brings with him a jet deal for Boeing that will net the corporation...