spartans_in_darkness

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Chapter 3 - ~"To Die in the South": SIGINT, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and
the Infiltration Problem.] ~968 EO 1.4. (c)
~Somt'timein 1971. a Special Forces team.
possibly part of the .JCS·s Shining Brass project to
interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and probably
made up of a mix of local tribesmen with an
American or Vietnamese commander. settled in
at some unidentified point along the trail in Laos.
Hiding in the forest. thev photographed a North
Vietnamese truck convoy that was moving along
the roadwav. . Thev.
took a remarkable series of
pictures. one of which is included below. In the
photo. the trucks are carefully nosing around a
huge bomb crater filled with water and debris
from nearby shattered trees. \Vhat trees that arc
left standing are nothing more than bare. scarred.
darkened trunks, Off to the side of the dirt track is
an expended metal casing from a U.S. aircraft;
whether it is a jettisoned fuel pod or a piece of
an ordnance package like napalm is unknown ­
not that this is important. The entire landscape,
with its haphazard debris and chaos of shadows
and lizht
h
seerninalv
b.
strueulinc
hb b
with one
another. is eerilv reminiscent of the set
from the classic German surrealist film
The Cabinet (!{ Doctor Caliqori. At the
same time. the picture says a lot about
the nature of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. the
communist infiltration of troops and
supplies to the south. as well as the
American response to cut this flow.
mostly in terms of a campaign of air
interdiction that dwarfed anything
before or since in twentieth century militarv
. history. .
(U) First of aIL there is a misconception
regarding the scope and nature of
the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Often, the trail is
popularly (and, on occasion, romanticallv)
portrayed as a single track or dirt
road running south like an arrow from
western :\orth Vietnam south along the
Laotian border with the two Vietnarns to finally
emerge at various points in the Central Highlands
or just north of Saigon. Actually. it is eas~ to
arrive at this image. Most maps carried in standard
histories of the Indochina War display a
simplified trail. reduced to a series of a fe\\ lines
snaking along the borders of the two Victnums.
Laos. and Cambodia. Consider the map on the
next page from Robert Schulzingers excellent
single-volume history A Timefor v1'ur.
(L) The true size and nature of the Ho Chi
Minh Trail l
were quite different, of course; it had
to be in order for it to withstand the onslaught of
American and Allied air power thrown against it
starting in 1964 and continuing into 1972. During
this time, the trail's operation also was under constant
pressure from forays by (i.S. Clnd\R\S
special forces commanding teams of irregular
troops recruited from local tribes. In e;lrl~ \97\.
fETHo Chi Minh TrClil, 1971
"fOP SECRETh'COMIPHff*1 Page 83
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