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Vietnam marks sacrifices on its trail of blood
Agence France Presse - May 18, 2009
Hanoi – Vietnam will mark the 50th anniversary tomorrow of its "trail of blood", the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which helped it to defeat the US in war, and is now being turned into a highway.
Since the beginning of the year ceremonies, television shows and other events have been commemorating the trail and the young soldiers and volunteers who died on it.
"It is a trail of blood. A lot of people were sacrificed," said retired Lieutenant General Vu Xuan Vinh, who commanded a military base on the route.
Millions of soldiers and millions of tonnes of weapons and other supplies were moved along the trail, which at first was little more than a network of mountain and jungle paths. They were later enlarged by military engineers to become roads, and some were even paved.
The term trail is a something of a misnomer, as there were several linked roads. There is no clear figure for how many people died building and defending the routes.
Even the Ho Chi Minh Trail Museum in Hanoi provides no death toll, but the trail "is one of extraordinary sacrifice, particularly of women", said Carl Thayer, a specialist on Vietnam who teaches at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
The trail may have claimed its toll in blood, but it was also a lifeline to communist forces trying to liberate South Vietnam, then backed by the US.
While parts of the trail network already existed, the all-out effort to expand it began in 1959 after the North Vietnamese leadership decided to use revolutionary warfare to liberate the South.
"On May 19 we had a small secret ceremony," and construction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail began, General Vinh said.
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