The Middle East would face a generation of bloodshed and dangerous upheaval if the US quit Iraq in haste, President Bush gave warning yesterday.

Mr Bush invoked Vietnam, and the chaos in SouthEast Asia after the American military’s withdrawal, to argue that the US must remain in Iraq until the country is stable.

But he insisted that the US flight from Saigon in 1975 and the suffering of millions in Vietnam and Cambodia that followed had critical lessons for Iraq and the Middle East today.

“Then, as now, people argued that the real problem was America’s presence and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end,” Mr Bush said of the build up of opposition to the Vietnam War.

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The US spent two years negotiating with North Vietnam to end the war. In Iraq, formal negotiations have yet to begin

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Iraq timeline: five years of conflict

From accusations that the weapons of mass destruction dossier had been sexed-up to withdrawal of British troops from Basra

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“The world would learn just how costly these misimpressions would be. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a murderous rule in which hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died by starvation, torture or execution.

“In Vietnam, former American allies, government workers, intellectuals and businessmen were sent off to prison camps, where tens of thousands perished.”

He added: “One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America’s withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like ‘boat people’, ‘reeducation camps’ and ‘killing fields’.”

After four years of having Vietnam used against him by critics of the Iraq war with a very different comparison – that of an unwin-nable quagmire – Mr Bush sought to turn conventional historical wisdom on its head by arguing, in effect, that America might have prevailed in Vietnam had US troops stayed.

The historical parallel was condemned by critics as a disturbing distortion of history.

Mr Bush was laying the ground for the pivotal progress report to be delivered to Congress on September 11 by General David Petraeus, the US ground commander in Iraq. General Petraeus is expected to ask for more time for the surge to work, but is also expect to signal the start of a US troop drawdown next spring.

Mr Bush spoke after 14 US soldiers were killed when their Black-hawk helicopter crashed during a predawn flight in northern Iraq, the most deadly such accident in two years. The Pentagon said the tragedy was caused by mechanical failure, not enemy fire. US military losses in Iraq are now 3,721. Last night at least 45 people were killed and 80 injured in a suicide bomb attack in northern Iraq Mr Bush, addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Kansas City, made clear that he will give General Petraeus as much time as he needs. Citing recent military gains in Iraq, Mr Bush, in a direct challenge to antiwar Democrats and wavering Republicans, asked: “As [US troops] take the initiative from the enemy, they have one question: will their elected leaders in Washington pull the rug out from under them just as they are gaining momentum and changing the dynamic on the ground in Iraq? My answer is clear: we will support our troops, we will support our commanders, and we will give them everything they need to succeed.”

White House strategists believe that Mr Bush will continue to hold enough votes on Capitol Hill to block efforts to cut short the “surge”. Mr Bush said there was another lesson from America’s withdrawal from Vietnam – statements from the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri that it was a sign of America’s weakness and its lack of stomach for today’s fight against terrorism. Mr Bush said: “If we were to abandon the Iraqi people, the terrorists would be emboldened. Unlike in Vietnam, if we were to withdraw before the job was done, this enemy would follow us home.”

Mr Bush also cited South Korea and Japan in his call to stand firm in Iraq. He said many in Washington after World War II believed Japan was incapable of embracing democracy and that the Korean War was a worthless struggle. “The advance of freedom in these lands should give us confidence that the hard work we are doing in the Middle East can have the same results we have seen in Asia – if we show the same perseverance and sense of purpose.”

Joseph Biden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign relations Committee, said: “The only relevant analogy of Vietnam to Iraq is this: in Iraq, just as we did in Vietnam, we are clinging to a central government that does not and will not enjoy the support of the people.”

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