Cheney Cites Progress During Surprise Visit to Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 18 - Vice President Dick Cheney, taking a look for himself at the country he once predicted would greet Americans as liberators, made a surprise visit to Iraq today, and proclaimed that last week's election showed tangible progress toward a stable democracy.

After arriving in Baghdad amid great secrecy this morning, Mr. Cheney hop-scotched around Iraq for nine hours under intense security. He got a briefing from the senior American officials in Baghdad, met with Iraq's leaders, got a first-hand look at newly trained Iraqi forces and spoke to United States military personnel.

It was Mr. Cheney's first trip to Iraq as vice president, and upon touching down here, he became the highest-ranking American official to visit since President Bush's stop here on Thanksgiving 2003. As defense secretary in 1991, Mr. Cheney traveled to southern Iraq immediately after the Persian Gulf war.

Mr. Cheney's dramatic visit today came three days after 11 million Iraqis went to the polls to elect a Parliament. Mr. Cheney's trip gave him a chance to deliver a preholiday thank you to American troops and to focus attention on the progress that Iraqis are making toward self-governance and providing their own security.

The trip also kicked off a day of extraordinary effort by the White House to turn the page from how and why the United States went to war to the administration's case that the struggle to put Iraq on sound footing is making headway. Mr. Bush is to make a nationally televised address on the war from the Oval Office tonight.

"Each one of you is helping to write a proud chapter in the history of freedom," Mr. Cheney told one gathering of American troops.