Ho Chi Minh trail

The Ho Chi Minh Trail , also called Annamite Range Trail (<a href="/facts/Vietnamese_language/J3Pbx58C">Vietnamese</a>: Đường Trường Sơn) was a <a href="/facts/Military_logistics/rm7npHRQ">logistical</a> network of roads and trails that ran from <a href="/facts/North_Vietnam/1d0osuEy">North Vietnam</a> to <a href="/facts/South_Vietnam/2QwTFmzd">South Vietnam</a> through the kingdoms of <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Laos/yYG2vJTU">Laos</a> and <a href="/facts/Cambodia_(1953%E2%80%931970)/hqMFz0o1">Cambodia</a>. The system provided support, in the form of manpower and <a href="/facts/Materiel/MekgWW9W">materiel</a>, to the <a href="/facts/Viet_Cong/hkoWcwRy">Viet Cong</a> (or "VC") and the <a href="/facts/People%27s_Army_of_Vietnam/ayoTsmQP">People's Army of Vietnam</a> (PAVN), during the <a href="/facts/Vietnam_War/W0gfbGTE">Vietnam War</a>. Construction for the network began following the <a href="/facts/North_Vietnamese_invasion_of_Laos/FbmMtt7I">North Vietnamese invasion of Laos</a> in July 1959. At the time it was believed to be the main supply route, however it later transpired that the <a href="/facts/Sihanouk_Trail/mD5FhJeq">Sihanouk Trail</a> which ran through Cambodia was handling significantly more material.
It was named by the U.S. after the North Vietnamese leader <a href="/facts/Ho_Chi_Minh/JLRhYPI7">Hồ Chí Minh</a>. The origin of the name is presumed to have come from the <a href="/facts/First_Indochina_War/oQW2oRrR">First Indochina War</a>, when there was a <a href="/facts/Viet_Minh/l03MGQh5">Viet Minh</a> maritime logistics line called the "Route of Ho Chi Minh",: 126  and shortly after late 1960, as the present trail developed, <a href="/facts/Agence_France-Presse/P3SpFIDh">Agence France-Presse</a> (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'.: 202  The trail ran mostly in Laos, and was called the Trường Sơn Strategic Supply Route (Đường Trường Sơn) by the <a href="/facts/Communism/PkUwa9xK">communists</a>, after the Vietnamese name for the <a href="/facts/Annamite_Range/5pGCwlx2">Annamite Range</a>, a major mountain range of central Vietnam.: 28  They further identified the trail as either West Trường Sơn (Laos) or East Trường Sơn (Vietnam).: 202  According to the U.S. <a href="/facts/National_Security_Agency/Sg6MGV1o">National Security Agency</a>'s official history of the war, the trail system was "one of the great achievements of military engineering of the 20th century". 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 <a href="/facts/Air_interdiction/6RM1Dv9J">air interdiction</a> campaign in history.

Ho Chi Minh trail open-in-new

Ho Chi Minh trail