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Vinh Moc tunnels of the Vietcong attract tourists
Under the terms of the Geneva Accords, Vietnam was temporarily divided along the 17th parallel, pending internationally supervised national elections, intended to re-unite the country in 1956.
The dividing line ran along the Ben Hai River, with a strip of no-man, 5 km wide on each side, known as the demilitarized zone or DMZ. All troops Viet Minh and supporters were expected to gather in the north, while the defeated French troops were evacuated.
The "anti-communist" the Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, led by US-backed Ngo Dinh Diem, refused to hold reunification elections, knowing that President Ho Chi Minh would have won a landslide victory.
This led to another 20 years of war – the American war.
In fact, both sides of the DMZ were all but demilitarized, and the border was easily circumvented. The Ho Chi Minh Trails to the west, and the secret routes to the East, has enabled the North to send supplies to the revolutionaries in the south, without going through a string of U.S. Firebase overlooking the Ben Hai River.
Quang Tri and Quang Binh, the two provinces closest to the demilitarized zone, were the most heavily bombed and saw the greatest losses, both civilian and military, American and Vietnamese during the American war.
Now, most of the bomb craters were completed, and it is a surprisingly green sea of rice, eucalyptus, acacia, pepper and rubber trees, but the terrible legacy the war still continues:
U.S. chemical weapons such as Agent Orange, continue to kill and affect future generations with birth defects.
Bombs and land mines lurking in the DMZ has, since 1975, caused thousands of deaths and injuries, and continue to cause victims war in the future.
"McNamara Line
One of the most fantastic efforts to prevent the infiltration to the south, was U.S. Secretary of Defense, "s proposal for a" Robert S. McNamara electronic fence "through the DMZ.
Known as "McNamara Line," and from the Vietnamese coast to the Mekong River, the idea was to use seismic and acoustic sensors to detect troop movements and identifying targets for bombing.
Although the tests in 1967 met with some initial success, the plan was quickly abandoned expensive: the Vietnamese quickly learned to "confuse" the sensor and deliberately remove and cause safely away from their paths.
Nor could massive bombardment of artillery and aircraft defeat the North Vietnamese, who eventually stormed the DMZ in 1972 and pushed the border 20 km to the south.
So much firepower was triggered in this area, including napalm and herbicides, which for years nothing will grow in the affected chemical laden ground.
There was even an American plan to use nuclear bombs to create an impenetrable zone of radiation through the DMZ. Fortunately, this did not eventuate, but the total tonnage of conventional bombing was equivalent to several times the power of the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.
Highway One – North of Hue, "Route joyless"
U.S. troops were not the first to suffer heavy losses in this region. During the 1950s, French soldiers dubbed the stretch of Highway 1 north of Hue as "street without joy" after they came under constant attack elusive Viet Minh units operating out of many fortified villages along the coast.
Quang Tri
In 1972 the Easter offensive, revolutionary forces invaded the entire area, freeing the city of Quang Tri (60 km north of Hue) of the South Vietnamese army (ARVN). They detained for months, while American B-52 bombers pounded the township and the surrounding countryside with a tonnage of bombs equivalent to 8 nuclear bombs in Hiroshima!
Finally, it was stated at enormous cost to both sides, and civilians. The town was wiped off the map, and now little remains of the ancient citadel of Quang Tri, built in 1824 by King Minh Mang. The city of Hai Trieu increased in its place. The road and rail from a bridge over the river in Quang Tri.
Dong Ha
Dong Ha town – the northernmost town in the main what was once South Vietnam – made the capital of the province of Quang Tri Town in ceased to exist. It is 13 km north of Quang Tri city. As a former command post U.S. Marine and ARVN base, Dong Ha was also cleared in 1972, but contrary to Quang Tri, he rebounded, largely due to its location at the junction with Highway 9, which leads to Laos.
Doc Mieu LIGHTS
The front line consists of a U.S. chain of Firebase established a long, low ridge of hills looking north across the DMZ and the flat plain of the Ben Hai River.
8 km south of the Ben Hai River and just off Highway 1, is a former U.S. base, once part of the "McNamara Line. It was widely picked up by collectors scrap, and recently by American veterans groups seeking MIAs (missing in action). Most of the remains discovered in the last years were those of the Vietnamese.
Con Thien LIGHTS
This was greater fire base in America, first established by the Special Forces (Green Berets) and then delivered to the Navy in 1966. From there, their big guns could reach far into North Vietnam.
With the approach of the Tet offensive in 1968, as part of the diversionary attacks, the base became the target of prolonged bombardment, followed by an assault Infantry, during which he was briefly surrounded.
The Americans responded with their entire arsenal, including long-range from helicopter gunships strafe into the sea from the east, and carpet bombing by B-52s. More than 40 000 tons of bombs were dropped on Con Thien, turning the hills into a moonscape of smoking. The revolutionaries were forced to withdraw temporarily, but then completely overrun the base of the summer 1972.
Hien Luong BRIDGE
15 km north of Dong Ha, Highway 1 falls into the DMZ, the race between the rice fields of the Ben Hai River, which located almost on the 17th parallel.
The original Hien Luong bridge was destroyed by American bombing in 1967. At the time, It was painted red and ½ yellow ½, a living reminder that it was a physical and ideological boundaries between the two zones of Vietnam.
This old iron girders of the bridge was rebuilt in 1973 and officially reopened in 1975 as a symbol of reunification. The current new bridge opens around 1999. The railroad did not share the same bridge as Highway One.
If Highway 1 crosses the Ben Hai River, there is a statue of registration dates the temporary division in 1954 and reunification in 1975, and that famous quote from Ho Chi Minh:
"Vietnam is a country, the Vietnamese are one people. Rivers can dry, and can erode the mountains, but nothing can change that truth. "(Ho Chi Minh).
Vinh Moc Tunnels
About 16 km of Highway 1, you can visit an amazing complex of tunnels, where over a thousand people away, sometimes for weeks during the worst American bombing.
When American bombing raids north of the DMZ intensified in 1966, residents of Vinh Linh began digging down into the red laterite soil, excavation of more than 50 tunnels over the next two years.
Although they were also used by the soldiers of the North, the tunnels were built mainly to house a population largely civilians who worked the supply route Con Co Sea Islands.
Five tunnels of Vinh Moc belonged, a village on the coast. For two years, 250 people over two kilometers dug tunnels, which housed all the 600 villagers over periods ranging from early 1967 until 1969, when ½ decamped north of the relative safety the province of Nghe An
The tunnels were built on three levels 10, 15 and 20-23m deep, with good ventilation, fresh water wells and possibly a generator and lights. The Village Underground was also equipped with schools, clinics, and a room maternity ward where 17 children were born. Each family was given a cave tiny, barely bigger than a single bed. These tunnels were built larger than the Cu Chi tunnels.
In 1972, the villagers of Vinh Moc could finally abandon their land and lives to rebuild their homes, joined by parents of Nghe An year later.
26 Dong Khoi Street, Dist 1, Ho Chi Minh City
5 Nguyen Truong To Street, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, Vietnam
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