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

Virginia Morris and Clive Hills (photographer) were the first Westerners to traverse the entire length of the Trail which included walking 700km in Laos across one of the worlds most heavily bombed mountain ranges. They traced the footsteps of the hundreds of thousands who designed, built, used and fought along it.

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 essential goods to the North Vietnamese Army over the Trail failed, and by the end of the war over a million tons of supplies had been transported and 2 million troops had traversed the Trail.

The material presented in this book covers both the American/South Vietnamese and North Vietnamese story. They interviewed villagers along the Trail, as well as key military and political figures on both sides of the conflict, including the mastermind of the Trail, Vietnam's General Vo Nguyen Giap and the longest servicing commander of the Trail General Dong Si Nguyen.

The Road to Freedom presents information which has never been published in the West before. So in-depth and new to the West is the research work from North Vietnam, that one of the American Special Forces who operated there covertly, said: `I wish I had had this information in 1969!' General Giap now 95 personally said about the publication: `All books on Vietnam must have maps like The Road to Freedom'. The book gives a balanced and fascinating account of this most remarkable feat of engineering and tactical warfare of the Vietnam War era.