FYI - current day photos of the Ho Chi Minh Trail
- Thread starter mandrill
- Start date
Cool thanks!! "Ho Chi Minh is a son of a bitch, got the blue balls, crabs and the seven year itch!!" Who knows which movie the previous quote is from? :eyebrows:
Thanks Oagre, something of interest to me as I have done some study on the War itself.
"One North Vietnamese soldier counted 24 ways you could die on it: malaria and dysentery could ravage you; U.S. aerial bombardments could disintegrate you; tigers could eat you; snakes could poison you; floods and landslides could wash you away. Sheer exhaustion took its toll as well."
From the Smithsonian Mag.
"One North Vietnamese soldier counted 24 ways you could die on it: malaria and dysentery could ravage you; U.S. aerial bombardments could disintegrate you; tigers could eat you; snakes could poison you; floods and landslides could wash you away. Sheer exhaustion took its toll as well."
From the Smithsonian Mag.
Yes, the site mentioned there was a 20% attrition rate on NVA soldiers travelling down the trial BEFORE they saw any action. That means 1 in 5 NVA troops DIED using the trail before they came in contact with Free World forces.
If memory serves me correctly, it was more than one trail, it was a series of interconnected trails.
Correct. They were more or less parallel to each other, sometimes twisting to intersect and of course heading in the same direction.
Reminds me of watching the CBS evening news with Walter Cronkite and seeing the news of the day concerning the Vietnam War. Not one day went by when there wasn't some news about Vietnam, however small or insignificant it might be. Lots of press were with the soldiers on the front lines then.
A somewhat timely thread for me, as I am currently reading a book about the covert teams that went in to monitor and/or interdiction ops.
Before I clicked that link I thought it was going to show maybe some super highway, or high speed rail line, or some really impressive development.
Instead, all it shows is some burned out scrap yard Mad Max like setting.
Sad.
I guess the Commies running Vietnam aren't good for too much. Typical.
Instead, all it shows is some burned out scrap yard Mad Max like setting.
Sad.
I guess the Commies running Vietnam aren't good for too much. Typical.
Actually J T K, I believe they are turning parts of it into a highway and the mahority of the H C M trail was outside of Vietnam, running primarily through Laos and Cambodia.
To echo Dirk, I would guess that it runs on the periphery of the country through out of the way regions that were relatively distant from the US held centres.
Pretty much nailed it there Oagre. It exited North Vietnam and ran through Laos and Cambodia, with off ramps into South Vietnam and was used mainly at night. The Trail was blended or camoflaged as best as they could, so as to avoid detection from the air. Large supply dumps were put into hillsides. AA was also employed and a full on division of supply was engaged by the NVA to keep the supplies moving to their destinations. The NVA also used this route to move into the south to build troop strength.
If the US had waged a conventional war against the trail, instead of a covert one, they may have had better success in Vietnam.
Waging a conventional war would have meant sustaining a large effort far from the major urban supply centres in South VN. While the US in the 60's had infinitely more military ability than the French in the 50's, there was a discouraging precedent re a Western power attempting to sustain forces deep in the periphery of the theatre of war. The French attempt at Dien Bien Phu led to catastrophe and the collapse of their war effort. Any military reverse to the US in the late 60's would have worsened the political situation back Stateside immensely.
Actually oagre, early in the war, had the US procured bases in Laos they would have been able to interdict the NVAs use of the trail, making it harder to move troops and supplies into S. Vietnam, possibly drawing the NVA out into a more conventional war.
While the French failed at Dien Bien Phu, by not taking the NVA as a serious threat militarily, the Americans learned from the French failure, Khe Sanh was a similar battle fought with the lessons learned from Dien Bien Phu, holding the surrounding ridges and having the ability to resupply by having an airstrip. Also the Americans had adopted a new style of warfare with the use of helicopters, bringing in vertical envelopment/supply. The use of helicopters changed the way the US fought the war.
By the time the US figured out that they had to get into Laos, the political climate had changed in the US and backing of the war was at an all time low. The war planners in the Nixon administration proposed a plan and under American guidance Laos was invaded by South Vietnamese troops in 1971, there were a number of Americans involved, but in supporting roles. This invasion was brought forth in order to cut the supply line, which was the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Unfrotunately S. Vietnamese troops were not very reliable and this action was unsuccessful. A case of too little, too late.
While the French failed at Dien Bien Phu, by not taking the NVA as a serious threat militarily, the Americans learned from the French failure, Khe Sanh was a similar battle fought with the lessons learned from Dien Bien Phu, holding the surrounding ridges and having the ability to resupply by having an airstrip. Also the Americans had adopted a new style of warfare with the use of helicopters, bringing in vertical envelopment/supply. The use of helicopters changed the way the US fought the war.
By the time the US figured out that they had to get into Laos, the political climate had changed in the US and backing of the war was at an all time low. The war planners in the Nixon administration proposed a plan and under American guidance Laos was invaded by South Vietnamese troops in 1971, there were a number of Americans involved, but in supporting roles. This invasion was brought forth in order to cut the supply line, which was the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Unfrotunately S. Vietnamese troops were not very reliable and this action was unsuccessful. A case of too little, too late.
Not to mention possibly provoking all-out war with China and (worse case scenario) the USSR.
