Network of roads in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia used by the Viet Cong from 1959 to 1975
Hồ Chí Minh Trail
Đường Trường Sơn
Southeastern Laos
Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1967
Type
Logistical system
Site information
Controlled by
PAVN
Site history
Built
1959–1975
In use
1959–1975
Battles/wars
North Vietnamese invasion of Laos
Operation Barrel Roll
Operation Steel Tiger
Operation Tiger Hound
Operation Commando Hunt
Cambodian Incursion
Operation Lam Son 719
Ho Chi Minh Campaign
Operation Left Jab
Operation Honorable Dragon
Operation Diamond Arrow
Project Copper
Operation Phiboonpol
Operation Sayasila
Operation Bedrock
Operation Thao La
Operation Black Lion
Garrison information
Past commanders
Võ Bẩm
Phan Trọng Tuệ
Đồng Sỹ Nguyên
Hoàng Thế Thiện
Garrison
5,000–60,000
The Ho Chi Minh Trail (Vietnamese: Đường mòn Hồ Chí Minh), also called Annamite Range Trail (Vietnamese: Đường Trường Sơn) was a logistical network of roads and trails that ran from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through the kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia. The system provided support, in the form of manpower and materiel, to the Viet Cong (or "VC") and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), during the Vietnam War. Construction for the network began following the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos in July 1959. At the time it was believed to be the main supply route, however it later transpired that the Sihanouk Trail which ran through Cambodia was handling significantly more materiel.[1]
It was named by the U.S. after the North Vietnamese president Hồ Chí Minh. The origin of the name is presumed to have come from the First Indochina War, when there was a Viet Minh maritime logistics line called the "Route of Ho Chi Minh",[2]: 126 and shortly after late 1960, as the present trail developed, Agence France-Presse (AFP) announced that a north–south trail had opened, and they named the corridor La Piste de Hồ Chí Minh, the 'Hồ Chí Minh Trail'.[2]: 202 The trail ran mostly in Laos, and was called the Trường Sơn Strategic Supply Route (Đường Trường Sơn) by the communists, after the Vietnamese name for the Annamite Range mountains in central Vietnam.[3]: 28 They further identified the trail as either West Trường Sơn (Laos) or East Trường Sơn (Vietnam).[2]: 202 According to the U.S. National Security Agency's official history of the war, the trail system was "one of the great achievements of military engineering of the 20th century".[4] The trail was able to effectively supply troops fighting in the south, an unparalleled military feat, given it was the site of the single most intense air interdiction campaign in history.
^Good Questions, Wrong Answers, Thomas L Ahern Jr, February 2004
^ abcMorris, Virginia; Hills, Clive A (2018). Ho Chi Minh's Blueprint for Revolution: In the Words of Vietnamese Strategists and Operatives. McFarland. ISBN 9781476665634. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
^Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975. Translated by Pribbenow, Merle L. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 2002. ISBN 9780700621873. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
^Robert J. Hanyok, Spartans in Darkness. Washington, D.C.: Center for Cryptographic History, NSA, 2002, p. 94.
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same manner and served the same purposes as the much better known HoChiMinhtrail (the Truong Son Road to the North Vietnamese) which ran through the...
(ARVN) forces. North Vietnam invaded Laos in 1958, establishing the HoChiMinhTrail to supply and reinforce the VC.: 16 By 1963, the north had sent 40...
regroupees military training and sent them back to the South along the HoChiMinhtrail in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Viet Cong called for the unification...
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become the famous HoChiMinhTrail extended over decades, with elements put in place during the anti-French struggle of the Viet Minh. Known to the North...
close air support in South Vietnam, interdiction efforts against the HoChiMinhTrail, supporting a guerrilla war on the Plain of Jars in Laos, and probing...
fight" being widely used. These women made vital contributions on the HoChiMinhtrail, in espionage efforts, medical care, logistical and administrative...
proportion of the active PAVN and VC forces were likewise engaged, on the HoChiMinhTrail, anti-aircraft networks, administration, etc., as is true of any modern...
detected the "static" produced by the ignition system of trucks on the HoChiMinhtrail, from distances up to 10 miles, and cued weapons onto the trucks....
resources, such as via the complex network of tunnels and paths in the HoChiMinhtrail. In response, the United States developed and deployed technologies...
attempted to extend the monsoon season over specific areas of the HoChiMinhTrail, in order to disrupt North Vietnamese military supplies by softening...
Vietnamese trucks on the HoChiMinhTrail. This was a demonstrably untrue conclusion, as trucks still traversed the Trail until the communist takeover...
Shriver served in the Vietnam War and took part in operations along the HoChiMinhtrail, Cambodia and Laos from 1966 to 1969. He also served in West Germany...
paramilitary units in South Vietnam, the unit created and maintained the HoChiMinhTrail, the supply line that helped the North win the Vietnam War. The purpose...
location of North Vietnam's expanding logistical corridor known as the HoChiMinhTrail (the Truong Son Road to the North Vietnamese), which ran from southwestern...
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