In 1959, after a communist revolution in North Vietnam, a turmoil quickly broke out between the North and South of Vietnam. The Northern communist party wanted a religion-free, government-controlled market, fascist run Vietnam, and the south wanted American style democracy. The conflict set the stage for a vicious proxy war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. U.S. firepower was massive, but the Viet Cong had one thing that kept them tipping the scale on allied forces, and that’s the Ho Chi Minh trail. We look deeper into the role of the Ho Chi Minh trail, and the role it played in securing a victory for the communist forces. Our story is accompanied by identical photos of the trail from the war and present times.
Not Their Fathers War
It would be only 1966 when President LBG learned the name of the most powerful leader of the communist party in Hanoi, Le Duan. Duan would lead a fierce communist campaign against the Allied forces in the south, and young American soldiers would get their first taste of a new kind of war.
Source: exploreindochina.com (Left) This is an iconic photo of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops passing through the Tha Me area, southwest of Sepon. (Right) Luckily the views are just as good now, and better still, you can ride your motorbike bike up there.
Not their father’s war, but a guerrilla war being fought from a long road in Cambodia. In the midst of all the carnage, Linden B. Johnson would have another war he would be fighting back home.