Showing posts with label Ho Chi Minh trail in Cambodia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ho Chi Minh trail in Cambodia. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Monday, November 08, 2010
Movies And Specials: 'Shakey's Hill'
AllYourTV.com
Synopsis: In 1970, CBS News cameraman Norman Lloyd followed a battalion of American soldiers into the jungles of Cambodia. The mission was to seek out substantial weapons and supply caches being used by the North Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War. As the battalion closed in on the location of the caches, they encountered a growing resistance from the North Vietnamese forces.
Rarely seen footage and first-hand accounts take the audience through each firefight leading up to the operation’s climax, which came to be known as the infamous taking of Shakey’s Hill.
By melding field interviews from 1970 with retrospective interviews from 35 years later, Shakey's Hill explores not only the events leading to this successful mission but the effects of war decades later.
Shakey's Hill, winner of the 2007 G.I. Film Festival’s Best Documentary Award, is produced and directed by Norman Lloyd. (Courtesy The Military Channel, 2010)
Airdate:
It premiered on the Military Channel on Friday, November 12th, 2010.
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Monday, May 18, 2009
Vietnam forgot to thank a Cambodian who allowed Uncle Ho to build the Ho Chi Minh trail through Cambodia?
Legendary Trail’s 50th anniversary celebrated
18/05/2009
VietNamNet/VOV (Hanoi)
VietNamNet Bridge - A ceremony was solemnly held in the central province of Quang Binh on May 16 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Fifty years ago Army Corps 559 (now Truong Son Civil Engineering Corporation) was assigned to open a strategic artery through the Truong Son Mountain Range to transport troops and cargo to the southern front during the resistance war against the US imperialists.
With a total length of nearly 20,000km encompassing Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the Ho Chi Minh Trail formed a strategic transport artery, comprising 26 land routes on the eastern and western parts of the Truong Son Mountain Range, more than 1,400km of oil pipelines and a system of 6,000km long waterway transport routes.
The historic and legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail symbolised the Vietnamese people’s will and aspiration for independence, freedom and national unification, as well as the revolutionary heroism of the Ho Chi Minh Era, said Phan Lam Phuong, chairman of the Quang Binh provincial People’s Committee at the ceremony.
Truong Tan Sang, Politburo member and permanent member of the Party Secretariat, presented the title of the Hero of People’s Armed Forces posthumously to the collective of 8 volunteer soldiers of Company 217, Construction Board 67 of Army Corps 559, recognising their exploits in opening the artery.
Participants were treated to a special art programme “The Legend of a Road” performed by more than 300 professional and amateur artists.
The performance depicted a glorious period for the Vietnamese people and army in opening the strategic artery through the Truong Son Maintain range, the great support by the north to the south, and the victory of the historic Ho Chi Minh campaign, culminating in the total liberation of the south and national unification in 1975.
Fifty years ago Army Corps 559 (now Truong Son Civil Engineering Corporation) was assigned to open a strategic artery through the Truong Son Mountain Range to transport troops and cargo to the southern front during the resistance war against the US imperialists.
With a total length of nearly 20,000km encompassing Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the Ho Chi Minh Trail formed a strategic transport artery, comprising 26 land routes on the eastern and western parts of the Truong Son Mountain Range, more than 1,400km of oil pipelines and a system of 6,000km long waterway transport routes.
The historic and legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail symbolised the Vietnamese people’s will and aspiration for independence, freedom and national unification, as well as the revolutionary heroism of the Ho Chi Minh Era, said Phan Lam Phuong, chairman of the Quang Binh provincial People’s Committee at the ceremony.
Truong Tan Sang, Politburo member and permanent member of the Party Secretariat, presented the title of the Hero of People’s Armed Forces posthumously to the collective of 8 volunteer soldiers of Company 217, Construction Board 67 of Army Corps 559, recognising their exploits in opening the artery.
Participants were treated to a special art programme “The Legend of a Road” performed by more than 300 professional and amateur artists.
The performance depicted a glorious period for the Vietnamese people and army in opening the strategic artery through the Truong Son Maintain range, the great support by the north to the south, and the victory of the historic Ho Chi Minh campaign, culminating in the total liberation of the south and national unification in 1975.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Who should bear the responsability for allowing Vietcong bases and the Ho Chi Minh trail inside Cambodia in the 60s? Was Cambodia really neutral then?
An SGGP reporter asks Mr. Seo Go about the section of the Truong Son trail running through O Yadao.Tracing Truong Son base in Cambodia
Friday ,May 08,2009
Saigon Gia Phong (Vietnamese Communist Party)
A team of SGGP reporters recently made a trip to Cambodia to find traces of a Truong Son troop base in Yadao District, Ratanakiri Province.
We followed the trail ‘14C’ running along Po Ko River to Le Thanh International border gate to Cambodia. From the gate, we traveled some ten kilometers to get to Nu Village of Ia Khai Commune, Gia Lai Province.
In the village, there still exist two wharfs. During the war, a boatman named A Sanh (his real name Puih San) would use his boat to transport North Vietnamese troops across the river to Cambodia.
We went across the river and began to follow the western Truong Son trail (also known as the Ho Chi Minh trail) running along the river to head to O Yadao District.
We were walking on a section of the trail where, between 2000 and 2005, the Kon Tum and Gia Lai Provincial Army Section unearthed more than 100 remains of North Vietnamese soldiers.
On our way to the destination, wild sunflowers were blooming yellow on both the sides of the trail under the brilliant sun. We at last arrived at the place formerly used as a safe base for Truong Son troops 40 years ago. The site is just some ten kilometers from the Vietnamese border and 74 kilometers from the center of Ratanakiri.
We went to border post 721 nearby and asked Commander Phan Dinh Thanh, commanding officer, to ask if he had any idea about the accurate location of the base.
Cdr. Thanh replied, “In 1984, in a patrol, jointly organized by the soldiers of military post 721 and those of Cambodian military post 623, we found a section of the trail and a station for Truong Son troops located at the border landmark of 271 on Cambodian land (or 272 on Vietnamese land). The trail paralleled with the twin stream, which flows into Pako River.”
He added, “On the trail, we still found the chains of tanks, oil pipelines, house frames and cooking stoves. We guessed that such things had belonged to a commo-liaison of the 559 Army Corps.”
We went with first lieutenant Huynh Van Sy of border post 721, who led us to the area where the base was said to have existed. Things have changed with time. Many forests around the site have now been transformed into green paddy fields, but the old Khmer villagers who lived through the war in the region still remembered the base and the North Vietnamese soldiers.
Lt. Sy led us to a house on stilts made from precious wood standing in the center of the village to meet Seo Go, a 65- year old local man. In the 1970’s, he was head of the village.
Seo Go said, “During the war, the troops were garrisoned in the forest, a kilometer from the village to the east. They usually came to the village to give help to the people. Sometimes, they also gave us food. There was also a large hospital for Truong Son soldiers in the forest, about a two day walk from the village.”
What Seo Go said helped us locate the site of Truong Son troops’ base in O Yadao District. We said goodbye to him and followed his directions to the site.
At the site, we could not find any trace of the trail because grass, bushes and trees had grown wildly. We could do nothing, but stand silently to remember thousands of soldiers who had fallen on the western Truong Son road for the cause of independence and freedom.
We left, pondering about the changing fortunes of life. Truong Son Mountain, the roof of Indochina, still emerges from the forests, the Poko River still flows from Cambodia into Vietnam, but the many historical sites on Truong Son Trail, if not found and restored in time, will be forever taken back by the forests from which it was born.
By staff writers – Translated by Phuong Lan
We followed the trail ‘14C’ running along Po Ko River to Le Thanh International border gate to Cambodia. From the gate, we traveled some ten kilometers to get to Nu Village of Ia Khai Commune, Gia Lai Province.
In the village, there still exist two wharfs. During the war, a boatman named A Sanh (his real name Puih San) would use his boat to transport North Vietnamese troops across the river to Cambodia.
We went across the river and began to follow the western Truong Son trail (also known as the Ho Chi Minh trail) running along the river to head to O Yadao District.
We were walking on a section of the trail where, between 2000 and 2005, the Kon Tum and Gia Lai Provincial Army Section unearthed more than 100 remains of North Vietnamese soldiers.
On our way to the destination, wild sunflowers were blooming yellow on both the sides of the trail under the brilliant sun. We at last arrived at the place formerly used as a safe base for Truong Son troops 40 years ago. The site is just some ten kilometers from the Vietnamese border and 74 kilometers from the center of Ratanakiri.
We went to border post 721 nearby and asked Commander Phan Dinh Thanh, commanding officer, to ask if he had any idea about the accurate location of the base.
Cdr. Thanh replied, “In 1984, in a patrol, jointly organized by the soldiers of military post 721 and those of Cambodian military post 623, we found a section of the trail and a station for Truong Son troops located at the border landmark of 271 on Cambodian land (or 272 on Vietnamese land). The trail paralleled with the twin stream, which flows into Pako River.”
He added, “On the trail, we still found the chains of tanks, oil pipelines, house frames and cooking stoves. We guessed that such things had belonged to a commo-liaison of the 559 Army Corps.”
We went with first lieutenant Huynh Van Sy of border post 721, who led us to the area where the base was said to have existed. Things have changed with time. Many forests around the site have now been transformed into green paddy fields, but the old Khmer villagers who lived through the war in the region still remembered the base and the North Vietnamese soldiers.
Lt. Sy led us to a house on stilts made from precious wood standing in the center of the village to meet Seo Go, a 65- year old local man. In the 1970’s, he was head of the village.
Seo Go said, “During the war, the troops were garrisoned in the forest, a kilometer from the village to the east. They usually came to the village to give help to the people. Sometimes, they also gave us food. There was also a large hospital for Truong Son soldiers in the forest, about a two day walk from the village.”
What Seo Go said helped us locate the site of Truong Son troops’ base in O Yadao District. We said goodbye to him and followed his directions to the site.
At the site, we could not find any trace of the trail because grass, bushes and trees had grown wildly. We could do nothing, but stand silently to remember thousands of soldiers who had fallen on the western Truong Son road for the cause of independence and freedom.
We left, pondering about the changing fortunes of life. Truong Son Mountain, the roof of Indochina, still emerges from the forests, the Poko River still flows from Cambodia into Vietnam, but the many historical sites on Truong Son Trail, if not found and restored in time, will be forever taken back by the forests from which it was born.
By staff writers – Translated by Phuong Lan
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