Deep in the jungles of Vietnam, soldiers from both sides battled heat exhaustion and each other for nearly 20 long years. But the key to Communist victory wasn't weapons or stamina, it was a dirt road. The Ho Chi Minh Trail, winding through Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, started as a simple network of dirt roads and blossomed into the centerpiece of the winning North Vietnamese strategy during the Vietnam War, supplying weapons, troops, and psychological support to the South. The trail was a network of tracks, dirt roads, and river crossings that threaded west out of North Vietnam and south along the Truong Son Mountain Range between Vietnam and Laos. The journey to the South originally took six months. But, with engineering and ingenuity, the Vietnamese expanded and improved the trail. Towards the end of war, as the main roads detoured through Laos, it only took one week. Here is how it happened. In 1959, as relations deteriorated between the North and the South, a system of trails was constructed in order to infiltrate soldiers, weapons, and supplies into South Vietnam. The first troops moved in single-file along routes used by local ethnic groups, and broken tree branches at dusty crossroads were often all that indicated the direction. Initially, most of the Communist cadres who came down the trail were Southerners by birth who had trained in North Vietnam. They dressed like civilian peasants in black, silk pajamas with a checkered scarf. They wore Ho Chi Minh sandals on their feet, cut from truck tires, and carried their ration of cooked rice in elephants' intestines, a linen tube hung around the body. The conditions were harsh and many deaths were caused by exposure, malaria, and amoebic dysentery. Getting lost, starving to death, and the possibility of attacks by wild tigers or bears were constant threats. Meals were invariably just rice and salt, and it was easy to run out. Fear, boredom, and homesickness were the dominant emotions. And soldiers occupied their spare time by writing letters, drawing sketches, and drinking and smoking with local villagers. The first troops down the trail did not engage in much fighting. And after an exhausting six month trip, arriving in the South was a real highlight, often celebrated by bursting into song. By 1965, the trip down the trail could be made by truck. Thousands of trucks supplied by China and Russia took up the task amidst ferocious B-52 bombing and truck drivers became known as pilots of the ground. As traffic down the trail increased, so did the U.S. bombing. They drove at night or in the early morning to avoid air strikes, and watchmen were ready to warn drivers of enemy aircraft. Villages along the trail organized teams to guarantee traffic flow and to help drivers repair damage caused by air attacks. Their catch cries were, "Everything for our Southern brothers!" and, "We will not worry about our houses if the vehicles have not yet gotten through." Some families donated their doors and wooden beds to repair roads. Vietnamese forces even used deception to get the U.S. aircraft to bomb mountainsides in order to make gravel for use in building and maintaining roads. The all-pervading red dust seeped into every nook and cranny. The Ho Chi Minh Trail had a profound impact on the Vietnam War and it was the key to Hanoi's success. North Vietnamese victory was not determined by the battlefields, but by the trail, which was the political, strategic, and economic lynchpin. Americans recognized its achievement, calling the trail, "One of the great achievements in military engineering of the 20th century." The trail is a testimony to the strength of will of the Vietnamese people, and the men and women who used the trail have become folk heros.
在越南叢林的深處 雙方士兵 和彼此及酷熱搏鬥 將近 20 年 但共產政權的勝利 並非武器或耐力 而是一條泥濘的道路 胡志明小徑 蜿蜒的連接越南、寮國和柬埔寨 它始於簡單的泥土路網絡 最後演變成 促成北越勝利的重要一環 在越戰期間 對南方提供武器 軍隊 和心理支持 這條小徑是包含了足跡 泥土道路 渡口的網路 它從北越向西穿出 再沿著越南和寮國 中間的安南山脈往南進 一趟向南的旅程原本需要六個月的時間 但是北越人發揮巧智 並運用工程學改善、延伸道路 在戰爭結束階段 利用一條繞道寮國的主道路 只需一個禮拜就可以到達 一切是這樣發生的 在 1959 南方和北方關係決裂 為了將士兵、武器和補給運入南越 北越建了一系列道路作為入侵準備 開路先鋒成一字縱隊 沿著地方居民使用的小路 並在泥土路的岔路口 折斷樹枝作為記號 最初,參與道路建設的 的共產黨幹部 都是南越出生、在北越受訓的人 他們穿著和一般農民一樣 黑色的寬鬆衣褲和方格花紋的頭巾 他們腳上穿著 從輪胎切割製成的胡志明涼鞋 並用一條背著的亞麻袋 來攜帶個人米飯 也被叫做「象腸袋」 條件很艱苦 很多人死於炎熱 瘧疾 和阿米巴性痢疾 迷路 飢餓 而野生老虎和熊的攻擊 也是一直存在的風險 食物是一層不變的米和鹽 而且很容易就耗盡了 恐懼、空虛和思鄉 則是常縈繞心頭的情緒 於是士兵用寫信 畫畫 和地方居民抽煙喝酒 來打發空閒時間 第一批沿著小徑走下來的部隊 沒有遭遇太多敵人 在筋疲力盡的六個月旅程後 抵達南方是最值得紀念的事 他們通常會高歌慶祝 到了 1965 年, 這趟旅程可以用卡車完成 中共和蘇聯支援上千輛的卡車 成為 B-52 轟炸機最明顯得目標 而卡車司機被稱為「地面飛官」 當用路車輛越來越多 美軍空襲也越密集 駕駛開始在夜晚或清晨開車 以避免空襲 而哨兵則會準備 對司機通報敵方飛機的接近 沿著小徑的村民則會 組織團隊 來確保車流順暢 並幫助司機修復空襲所造成的損害 他們的口號是 「一切都是為了我們的南方兄弟!」 和「在車子還沒通過前, 我們不會去管自己的房子。」 有些家庭捐出門板 和木床用來維修道路 越南軍甚至誘使美軍 對山腳進行轟炸 以取得建造和維護道路 所需的礫石 這條道路延伸到每一個角落 胡志明小徑對於越戰 有深遠的影響 也是河內戰勝的關鍵 北越的勝利並不是在戰場上 而是由一條小徑決定的 這是政治 戰略 和經濟各層面的結合 美國體認到這條路的重要性 並將它稱作 「 20 世紀軍事工程上 最偉大的成就。」 這條道路見證了北越人民 的堅韌意志 而所有參與建造道路的男女 也被尊為民族英雄