NYT/AP: Vietnamese Greet Bush With Indifference

[DeepModem Mom]

Vietnamese Greet Bush With Indifference
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 17, 2006

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Tran Van Lac poured tea Friday for six men on low stools, including a police officer who was part of the large security presence waiting for President Bush outside Hanoi's Sheraton hotel.

''I don't care about Bush's visit,'' Lac said in an alleyway parallel to the hotel, where the president's greeting party was limited to a lone flag-waving American who works for the American Chamber of Commerce. ''It doesn't do me any good. It doesn't do me any harm.''

Lac's indifference, which appeared to be shared by many Vietnamese, was a sharp contrast to the reception that Bill Clinton received in 2000, when he became the first American president to visit since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

Unlike the joyous crowds that stayed up late for Clinton's unannounced midnight flight into Hanoi's international airport -- a half-hour drive from downtown -- Bush's late-morning arrival drew mostly the curious rather than the devoted, other than the police maintaining a security perimeter around the hotel....

***

Flags had flapped furiously for Clinton, who drew crowds everywhere he went. Vietnamese responded to his charisma, and to the fact that he normalized relations between their nation and the United States....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Bush-Cool-Reception.html?_r=1&oref=login

[kurth]

1. "The president's greeting party was limited to a lone flag-waving American

who works for the American Chamber of Commerce."

'Nuf said.

[TlalocW]

2. They say it's indifference

But they're afraid to be around the one guy who if he had actually gone to Vietnam in the 60s, he would have single-handedly won that war for us.

TlalocW

[Richard Steele]

3. I believe 'indifference' is the appropriate response to IRRELEVANCE. nm

[Monkeyman]

5. Yep oriental way

[Jacobin]

4. OMG

"where the president's greeting party was limited to a lone flag-waving American who works for the American Chamber of Commerce."

:rofl:

[BootinUp]

6. The man is an utter embarrassment and foreign policy disaster.

Just sayin.

[lapfog_1]

7. I'm thinking that if Vietnam wasn't communist,

that Bush would have been met with protests.

[donsu]

8. what's communism got to do with it?

nt

[lapfog_1]

9. Maybe I should have said totalitarian

but that's not quite right when talking about most of the remaining communist nations. But there is still a level of control in these countries, particularly when it comes to public protest (as, sadly, there is here as well). My guess is that very few people in Vietnam would come out to greet Bush or wave as he drives by, but with him being a guest in their country, I'm sure the word was passed down to not give him the "one finger salute" either (whatever the Vietnamese equivalent is).

[NNN0LHI]

13. Yea, I bet those poor Vietnamese people wish they could trade...

...their boring and dismal lives living in a totalitarian society for a real exciting and enlightened USA type democracy like we gave to the Iraqis.

Don

[gratuitous]

10. Maybe, but maybe not

I think indifference was about as good as Bush could have hoped for. Some countries figure that if you don't have something nice to say, you don't say anything. The ordinary Vietnamese might not like Bush very much, but they wouldn't embarrass themselves or their country by expressing that dislike publicly. Better to just ignore the visit as much as possible, and let things take their course, especially if it's not going to have any effect on you personally.

[lapfog_1]

12. Yeah, it's the best he could hope for.

But, Bush has to be one of the most reviled leaders in the world. I remember when he traveled to Europe not that long ago (a year?) that he was met with massive protests at every stop. I wouldn't expect that in Asia, at least to that extent, but a few protesters would be expected, no? Unless they were told by local party officials to NOT protest.

Or is the world over being pissed at Bush now?

[WI_DEM]

11. Thousands cheered Clinton in '00, one person cheers Chimp '06

James Baker to Chimp on election day, '06: "Nobody Likes you."