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Deep in the jungles of Vietnam,

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soldiers from both sides

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battled heat exhaustion and each other

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for nearly 20 long years.

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But the key to Communist victory

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wasn't weapons or stamina,

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it was a dirt road.

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The Ho Chi Minh Trail,

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winding through Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia,

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started as a simple network of dirt roads

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and blossomed into the centerpiece

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of the winning North Vietnamese strategy

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during the Vietnam War,

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supplying weapons,

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troops,

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and psychological support to the South.

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The trail was a network of tracks,

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dirt roads,

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and river crossings

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that threaded west out of North Vietnam

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and south along the Truong Son Mountain Range

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between Vietnam and Laos.

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The journey to the South originally took six months.

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But, with engineering and ingenuity,

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the Vietnamese expanded and improved the trail.

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Towards the end of war,

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as the main roads detoured through Laos,

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it only took one week.

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Here is how it happened.

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In 1959, as relations deteriorated

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between the North and the South,

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a system of trails was constructed in order to infiltrate

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soldiers, weapons, and supplies into South Vietnam.

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The first troops moved in single-file

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along routes used by local ethnic groups,

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and broken tree branches at dusty crossroads

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were often all that indicated the direction.

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Initially, most of the Communist cadres

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who came down the trail

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were Southerners by birth who had trained in North Vietnam.

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They dressed like civilian peasants

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in black, silk pajamas with a checkered scarf.

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They wore Ho Chi Minh sandals on their feet,

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cut from truck tires,

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and carried their ration of cooked rice

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in elephants' intestines,

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a linen tube hung around the body.

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The conditions were harsh

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and many deaths were caused by exposure,

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malaria,

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and amoebic dysentery.

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Getting lost,

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starving to death,

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and the possibility of attacks by wild tigers or bears

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were constant threats.

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Meals were invariably just rice and salt,

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and it was easy to run out.

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Fear, boredom, and homesickness

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were the dominant emotions.

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And soldiers occupied their spare time

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by writing letters,

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drawing sketches,

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and drinking and smoking with local villagers.

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The first troops down the trail

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did not engage in much fighting.

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And after an exhausting six month trip,

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arriving in the South was a real highlight,

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often celebrated by bursting into song.

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By 1965, the trip down the trail could be made by truck.

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Thousands of trucks supplied by China and Russia

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took up the task amidst ferocious B-52 bombing

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and truck drivers became known as pilots of the ground.

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As traffic down the trail increased,

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so did the U.S. bombing.

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They drove at night or in the early morning

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to avoid air strikes,

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and watchmen were ready

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to warn drivers of enemy aircraft.

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Villages along the trail organized teams

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to guarantee traffic flow

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and to help drivers repair damage caused by air attacks.

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Their catch cries were,

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"Everything for our Southern brothers!"

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and, "We will not worry about our houses

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if the vehicles have not yet gotten through."

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Some families donated their doors

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and wooden beds to repair roads.

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Vietnamese forces even used deception

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to get the U.S. aircraft to bomb mountainsides

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in order to make gravel for use

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in building and maintaining roads.

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The all-pervading red dust seeped into every nook and cranny.

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The Ho Chi Minh Trail had a profound impact

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on the Vietnam War

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and it was the key to Hanoi's success.

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North Vietnamese victory was not determined by the battlefields,

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but by the trail,

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which was the political,

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strategic,

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and economic lynchpin.

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Americans recognized its achievement,

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calling the trail,

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"One of the great achievements

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in military engineering of the 20th century."

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The trail is a testimony to the strength of will

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of the Vietnamese people,

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and the men and women who used the trail

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have become folk heros.