Only because it is so pertinent to the diologue in our comments area I found much of Dr Kissinger's LA Times Editorial familiar.  Always nice to get a history lesson from someone who was actually there.  If I recall Kissinger is no fan of W and vice versa by the way.

an excerpt:
 The Nixon administration was convinced that it had achieved a decent opportunity for the people of South Vietnam to determine their own fate; that the Saigon government would be able to overcome ordinary violations of the agreement with its own forces; that the U.S. would assist against an all-out attack; and that, over time, the South Vietnamese government would be able to build a functioning society.

In that one paragraph, if you were to replace every reference to Viet Nam with Iraq, Saigon with Baghdad, and Nixon with Bush, this would sum up our current situation pretty well.  So I guess there really are sum comparisons after all...

this also seems to fit...

American disunity was a major element in dashing these hopes. Watergate fatally weakened the Nixon administration through its own mistakes, and the 1974 midterm congressional elections brought to power the most unforgiving of Nixon's opponents, who cut off aid so the agreement couldn't work as planned. The imperatives of domestic debate took precedence over geopolitical necessities.

Therein liveth the lesson.  I can't be the only to have wondered how long ago this war would have ended if unity rather than political gamesmnaship prevailed.

Two lessons emerge from this account. A strategic design cannot be achieved on a fixed, arbitrary deadline; it must reflect conditions on the ground. But it also must not test the endurance of the American public to a point where the outcome can no longer be sustained by our political process. In Iraq, rapid, unilateral withdrawal would be disastrous. At the same time, a political solution remains imperative.

A political settlement has to be distilled from the partly conflicting, partly overlapping views of the Iraqi parties, Iraq's neighbors and other affected states, based on a conviction that the cauldron of Iraq would otherwise overflow and engulf everybody. The essential prerequisite is staying power in the near term. President Bush owes it to his successor to make as much progress toward this goal as possible; not to hand the problem over but to reduce it to more manageable proportions. What we need most is a rebuilding of bipartisanship in both this presidency and in the next.

Emphasis mine.
As they say, RTWT (read the whole thing) The Lessons of Vietnam - Henry Kissinger, Los Angeles Times. As one ponders other headlines I see this hopeful sign today Cease Fires Being Eyed reporting factions in Iraq are considering laying down arms. (h/t RealClearPolitics.com)
 

One can't help but wonder whether it had something to do with this headline from last week Bush Prevails in Political Showdown Over Iraq.

COINCIDENCE?