Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President George W. Bush's secret Thanksgiving visit to troops in Iraq was the first such unscheduled journey since President Lyndon Johnson went to Vietnam in 1967, at the height of the war in Southeast Asia.

``You are defeating the terrorists here in Iraq so that we don't have to face them in our own country,'' Bush told about 600 U.S. soldiers during his two-and-a-half-hour visit yesterday to Baghdad International Airport. ``We will stay until the job is done.''

The 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq have come under regular attacks that have killed 184 since May 1, when Bush declared an end to major combat in the war on Saddam Hussein's regime. The toll has eroded Bush's standing in opinion polls, less than a year before he stands for re-election. Half the respondents in a Nov. 18-19 CNN/Time magazine poll said the war wasn't worth the cost, in lives and dollars.

The U.S. troops are ``helping change a troubled and violent part of the world,'' said Bush, who was accompanied by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. ``We will stay on the offensive.''

After eating with the soldiers and serving food to some of them, Bush met with five members of the Iraqi Governing Council, which is preparing to hold free elections and draft a constitution.

`Bump' in Polls

Larry Sabato, a political expert at the University of Virginia, compared the secrecy of Bush's trip with former national security adviser Henry Kissinger's secret trip to China in 1971 to establish relations with the communist nation. Still, he said the visit won't boost Bush in the long term.

``It's a positive public-relations move. It might give Bush a bump in the polls in the next few days, but it's the kind of thing that disappears in a week,'' Sabato said.

Johnson made his surprise 1967 visit to U.S. servicemen in Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam during an unscheduled stop while he was traveling in Asia.

Bush's trip yesterday could bring ``too many historical analogies with another disaster the U.S. was involved in,'' Prof. Michael Cox of the London School of Economics said. ``The last thing you want is analogies drawn with Lyndon Baines Johnson in Vietnam.''

Jano Cabrera, a spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate Senator Joseph Lieberman, said visiting the troops ``is exactly what a commander-in-chief should do.''

`Win the Peace'

``That said, we hope that he's also reassuring them that the administration will eventually have a plan to win the peace and bring our troops home soon,'' Cabrera said.

Democrats have criticized Bush for past appearances with the military, particularly his May 1 visit to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. The president used the occasion to declare major combat over in front of a sign reading ``Mission Accomplished.''

Bush's visit to Baghdad, a 34-hour round trip from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, caught the soldiers by surprise. They were gathered in an airport hangar to hear a reading of the president's Thanksgiving proclamation. When Bush walked out, the troops roared.

``It was a major shock. I was thinking, `What's he doing here?''' said Private Jeff Kamp, 19, of Peoria, Illinois, who serves with the 13th Armored Division and has been in Iraq since May. ``I'm very proud our president could make it out.''

Spiral Landing

Bush didn't leave the secure airport compound during his visit. His plane landed without lights at night, angling down in a spiral motion, a standard method to avoid anti-aircraft fire. White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett told reporters on the plane that in communications with air traffic controllers, the plane wasn't identified as Air Force One.

Speaking to reporters on the flight back to the U.S., Bush said he had been ``fully prepared to turn this plane around'' and cancel the trip to Baghdad if word had leaked before his arrival.

More U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq since May 1 than during the invasion and battle to oust Hussein's regime. There have been 298 U.S. deaths due to hostile action since March, when U.S. forces entered Iraq. Of those, 185 have occurred in the almost seven months since Bush declared an end to major combat. A total of 136 have died of non-hostile causes, such as accidents, according to Pentagon figures.

The 185th combat death came in the northern city of Mosul today, when a soldier of the 101st Airborne Division was killed in a mortar attack on the military compound there, the U.S. Central Command said in an e-mailed statement.

Bush's job approval in the CNN/Time poll was 52 percent, down from a high of 89 percent in October 2001. Forty-eight percent said they would vote against Bush, and 47 percent said they intended to vote for the president. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Bush has said the U.S. will stay in Iraq as long as necessary to ensure that Iraqis can secure their country and run a democratic government. Even so, the timetable for a U.S. withdrawal has accelerated.

Last Updated: November 28, 2003 08:50 EST