May 19 in History
1959 – The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail
The Ho Chi Minh trail was a logistical network of roads and trails that ran from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) through the kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia. The system provided support, in the form of manpower and materiel, to the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (called the Viet Cong) and the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) during the Vietnam War. It was named by the US after North Vietnamese president Hồ Chí Minh. According to the United States National Security Agency’s official history of the war, the trail system was “one of the great achievements of military engineering of the 20th century”. The trail was able to effectively supply troops fighting in the south, a military feat unparalleled given it was the site of the single most intense air interdiction campaign in history, with bombs dropping on average every seven minutes.
-Wikipedia
Photo Caption – Ho Chi Minh Trail (Colorized) – Wikipedia