McCain's former enemies pull for him - again

HANOI (Reuters) - Le Van Lua was pulling for John McCain on Wednesday, 41 years and one week after he pulled the same man, battered and bruised, from the lake where his parachute landed after his plane was shot down over Hanoi.

"I feel if he had become the president there would have been more good things (for the bilateral relationship)," Lua, 60, said standing by the lake near a memorial to the shooting down of the U.S. Navy pilot-turned-Presidential candidate.

After Lua and another man fished McCain out of Truc Bach lake following his ill-fated bombing run, he was hauled away and spent the next five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi.

McCain has said he was frequently beaten and tortured in captivity, and suffers chronic shoulder pain and moderate pain of the right knee from injuries received after being shot down.

But his time in prison in Hanoi was formative, and as a U.S. senator he worked to improve relations between the United States and its former foe.

Many in Vietnam said on Wednesday they were pleased that Democrat Barack Obama won the U.S. presidency even though he does not have a connection with the Southeast Asian nation.

"I have a very good impression about the Democrats. Whoever runs for the Democrats I am for Democrats," said Nguyen Linh Dan, who spent five weeks in the summer in southern Illinois.

"Democrats will do the best things for developing countries like Vietnam."

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

The stakes in this U.S. election are higher for Vietnam than at any time since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1995. Vietnam's exports to the United States are forecast to rise 28 percent this year to $13 billion from 2007.

"Obama is expected to introduce positive changes to revive the U.S. economy, which will have a tremendous impact on Vietnam because America is the biggest buyer of Vietnamese products," said 28-year-old Nguyen Minh Duc, director of the Hanoi-based Thang Long Securities' Investment Department.

After it became clear on Wednesday morning the ex-Navy pilot had lost to Obama, business consultant Nguyen Xuan Dao offered the kind of forward-looking assessment about Vietnam-U.S. relations that is common here.

"The past is no longer an issue for Vietnam and the United States," said Dao.

"So we will welcome the next U.S. president who can heal the U.S. economy's sickness and create opportunities to develop business ties with Vietnam."

McCain, 72, will still have a place in Hanoi. The flight suit and other gear he wore when he was shot down on October 26, 1967, is on display in the museum that was the Hoa Lo prison, known as the "Hanoi Hilton," where he was held.

And as far as his captor Lua is concerned, there is always hope that the fortunes of the one-time enemy who he confronted with a knife in the lake will turn. "Even though he won't be president, he will continue to do more in the diplomatic arena or in terms of developing the economy so that he can win the next election," he said.

(Additional reporting by Ho Binh Minh, Nguyen Nhat Lam and Nguyen Ha Minh; Editing by Darren Schuettler and David Fox)