A History of the Ho Chi Minh Trail: The Road to Freedom

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a decisive factor in the defeat of American forces in the Vietnam War. At the peak of its 16 years' operation, the Trail ran through North and South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Despite an estimated 4 million tons of US bombs, efforts to stop the transport of supplies to the North Vietnamese Army over the Trail failed, and by 1975 over a million tons of supplies and 2 million troops had traversed it. The author and photographer, the first Westerners to traverse the entire length of the Trail, trace the footsteps of the hundreds of thousands who designed, built, used and fought along it. Interviewing villagers along the Trail, as well as key military and political figures on both sides of the conflict, including the mastermind of the trail, General Vo Nguyen Giap, they present a fascinating account of this most remarkable feat of engineering and tactical warfare of the Vietnam War era.