The Ho Chi Minh Trail During The Vietnam War

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a necessity for North Vietnam to overthrow the Saigon government of the south and to win the war (Yarborough, 1). The trail started by carrying a few tons of supplies on bikes and animals, but within 10 years from when it started it became a vast network of 12,000 miles of road, rivers and trails (Yarborough, 1). By the end of the war, the the trail had become more advanced and more intricate (Yarborough, 1). The operators of the trail used strategies to avoid detection. For example, to hide from passing planes, things like cloudy weather and moonlight were utilized to the fullest extent (Yarborough, 1). Supplies were carried throughout the trail from one checkpoint to the next in the night, so that the delivery would not seem as though they were from the North if they were tracked (Yarborough, 1). In addition, the same drivers were used repetitively …show more content…
After the U.S. realized that the bombings of North Vietnam were not going to help them win the war, they started to create ways of strategically destroying the Ho Chi Minh Trail (Yarborough, 1). The U.S. flew along what they thought to be the correct trails and dropped sensors, all in an effort to detect which areas had the most activity (Yarborough, 1). The U.S. then bombed the places that popped up on the sensors most frequently (Yarborough, 1). Although the bombings did do damage to the trail, they did not have a huge impact, as the North Vietnamese just saw them as a mere obstacle and continued to fully use the trail. While the delivery system on the Ho Chi Minh trail was disorganized, it worked. For instance, when a North Vietnamese driver did not adhere to the system in place and drove in daylight, he was caught by a U.S. FAC plane (Yarborough, 1). Despite the lack of organization and protection, without the Ho Chi Minh trail, the North Vietnamese would not be able to fight as brutally in the south as they