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| Traveling along the trail |
The Ho Chi Minh Trail, named after the president of North Vietnam, was a military supply route including an elaborate system of mountain and jungle path trails. It ran from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia all the way to South Vietnam. The trail was one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 21st century. It was made for Communist North Korea to be able to send things like ammunition, weapons, and manpower to their supporters in South Vietnam. The trail moved several tons of supplies every single day. Medical aid stations, radio and telecommunications facilities, barracks and food and weapon stations were all underground, hiding thousands of Vietnamese at any time during the Vietnam War.
The American involvement in Vietnam increased around the 1960s. The U.S. would constantly bomb the trail, but often times it didn't do much. In 1965, over 30 U.S. Air Force jets attacked the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. This was one of very many attacks on villages and roads along the trail. The trail was also known as "The Blood Road." It would take a Vietnamese soldier 6 months to get down the trail, if not gotten by an American bombing of course. Today, parts of the trail still exist.
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| Map of the trail |
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| Underground Guerrilla escapes along the trail |
6 months is a long time! That trail must have been really long. Your last picture is really interesting, is it like a trap door?
ReplyDeleteThat trap door in your picture looks incredibly small! It's weird that they made this trail with so many tunnels and hiding spots.
ReplyDeleteI can understand why this is one of the greatest engineering feats of all time, with all the hidden entrances and facilities underground, stretching countless miles throughout the country, its hard to wrap your head around how big it actually is.
ReplyDeleteI have learned about the trail in the past but I didn't know how elaborate it was. Do you think you could have thought of some of these ideas at the time?
ReplyDeleteCheyenne, thank you for sharing what you discovered in you research about the Ho Chi Minh Trail. I was interested to learn that it would take 6 months to get down the train, I wonder how many miles long the trail actually was?
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