Ho Chi Minh Trail By: Tom Todaro and Mike Alessi

Background Information  The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a network of roads developed by the North Vietnamese that clandestinely connected North and South Vietnam.  Main supply route used by the North Vietnamese to supply troops in the South who were preparing for the intense conflict Hanoi was staging against the hated South Vietnamese government.  In May of 1955, Major General Nguyen Can Vinh of Hanoi’s Central Military Committee began to act on the North’s need for a supply route in the aid foreseen conflict with South Vietnam.  Built from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia.  In total the trail was about 1,000 kilometers in length and consisted of many parts.

Nature of Conflict  The American response to this was to use defoliants to kill off the greenery that gave cover to those using the trail.  Trail was used for the duration of the war against the Americans in South Vietnam.  Americans tried to counter the trail by building large bases near to it and from the bases patrols were set out to try and intercept anyone using the route.

Impact  The trail consisted of dummy routes that served the only purpose of confusing the Americans.  The natural environment gave the trail excellent cover.  Gave the North Vietnamese the advantage as they had the ability to disappear into the jungle.

Additional Info  Trail was named by the Americans for the North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh.  The Trail system was one of the great achievements of military engineering of the 20 th century.  The area through which the system meandered was among the most challenging in Southeast Asia.  Trail consisted of a sparsely-populated region of rugged mountains, triple-canopy jungle and dense primeval rainforests.