Day at The Ho Chi Minh Trail

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1875.html

Today we decided to go to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. There are many trails: 16,000 km of them in all which include roads, waterways and tracks. We decided to go to the one that today is now a highway. We meet up with the road in Hanoi and took a bicycle ride just a few miles down the road to see what it looks like. We found out a lot of information about the history of this road and would like to share this amazing history with you.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a network of roads built from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia, to provide logistical support to the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a secret road used to carry war supplies and was known as code 559. The name, taken from North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, is of American origin. Within Vietnam, it is called the Ðuong Truong Son, or Truong Son Road, after the mountain range in Central Vietnam. Another name given the trail is “The Blood Road."

The North Vietnamese also used the Ho Chi Minh Trail to send soldiers to the south. At times, as many as 20,000 soldiers a month came from Hanoi by this way. In an attempt to stop this traffic, it was suggested that a barrier of barbed wire and minefields, called the McNamara Line, should be built. The plan was abandoned in 1967 after repeated attacks by the NLF on those involved in constructing the barrier.