Ho+Chi+Minh+Trail

=__Ho Chi Minh Trail__ =

__Overview__
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 any sort of support to the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War. It was a combination of truck routes and paths for foot and bicycle traffic. The trail was around 16,000-kilometers web of tracks, roads and waterways.

__The Origin of the Trail__
-The trail was created long before the first US Air Force arrival to Vietnam in October 1961.
 * May 1959 The Lao Dong, the communist party of Vietnam began the creation of a “special trail” to support the war that was forming in Vietnam.
 * It was originally coded 559 which takes name from Ho Chi Minh’s birthday, eventually the trail would become known simply by his name.
 * Great care was given by the North Vietnamese to prevent the discovery of the trails existence. In the beginning, it led across the Demilitarized Zone and followed Route 9 all the way past Khe Sanh. The first infiltration down the trail was June 10, 1958. Each person on the delivery carried four rifles or a 44 pound box of ammunition. These goods were delivered into Shau Valley.
 * The trail was originally discover in 1960, when a plantaion owner found a bundle of rifles that had been carlessly left behind. In early 1961, North Vietnamese government began shifting the trail to the other side of the mountains to keep it more hidden. The use of this territory was much harder to control because it crossed another communist state of the Laotian borders.
 * The porters would ride on French or Czech bicycles that were outfitted with extra suspension, widened handlebars and pallets that could carry upto 400 pound and sometimes even more. They would ride these bikes across the mountains into the Laos, following the jungle trails, then crossing the mountains back into South[[image:BicycleSuppliesTrail.jpg width="381" height="260" align="left"]]Vietnam.
 * In 1964, the North Vietnamese launched a huge project to upgrade the trail for the use of vehicles. Using machinery given to them from Chinese and Soviet supporters, in order to build roads and bridges, also to create elaborate midway stations, complete with underground barracks, storage facilities, workshops and even fuel depots.
 * Not only porters but North Korean soldiers also put the trail to use in order to infiltrate the south. There had been about 8,000 troops in 1963—leapt to 12,000 in 1964, then doubled in each of the next two years. Road watchers at the Mu Gia Pass between North Vietnam and Laos reported the passage of 2,294 trucks between December 1964 and May 1965.
 * By 1965, about 6,000 porters and 80,000 laborers were working on the trail. In good weather, they built new roadways at the rate of two miles a day

=__Casualties of the Trail__=

At least 10 percent of the casualties along the trail were from such illnesses as malaria. At regular intervals along the route, the National Liberation Front (NLF) built base camps. As well as providing a place for them to rest, the base camps provided medical treatment for those who had been injured or had fallen ill on the journey. Most of the base camps were underground in order to stay hidden from American bombers. However bombs may not have immensely helped as The United States could not block the Ho Chi Minh Trail with ground forces, because the countries it passed through were officially neutral. Extensive aerial bombing did not prevent the North Vietnamese from moving hundreds of tons of war supplies per day down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the south. The trail undeniably lay at the heart of the war. For the Vietnamese of the North the Ho Chi Minh Trail symbolized the aspirations of a people — hiking it became the central experience of a generation.

=__The “Trail” Today__= In modern times today in Vietnam, the trail is regarded as a legend. All of those who built it, ran the stations or transported the arms and supplies to the south are regarded as heroes of war. As of April 2000, Vietnam began the construction of the “Ho Chi Minh Highway” from Ho Chi Minh city (formerly Saigon,) into Hanoi. This highway is being built in commemoration of the historic trail. It will eventually be 1,050 miles long. So far, about 750 miles are open to traffic. The actual trail itself is used as a hike for tourists or as an exciting dirt biking road. media type="youtube" key="ZlDZpA6ga0E" height="315" width="420"

Created by: Blake Hawkins and Sarah Choi
=__Recourses:__=

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_chi_minh_trail

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/268322/Ho-Chi-Minh-Trail

http://nautilus.org/projects/foia/essentially-annihilated/essentially-annihilated-targeting-ho-chi-minh-trail/

And my mind ;P