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In 1954, the French colonialists were ultimately defeated by the Viet Minh at the famed battle at Dien Bien Phu. By then, America was paying 80% of the French war costs.
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Under the terms of the Geneva Accords, Vietnam was temporarily divided along the 17th parallel, pending internationally-supervised nationwide elections, intended to re-unite the country in 1956.
The demarcation line ran along the Ben Hai River, with a strip of no-man's land, 5 km wide on each side, known as the De-militarised Zone, or Dmz. All Viet Minh troops and supporters were supposed to regroup north, while the defeated French troops were evacuated.
The "anti-communist" government of the southern Republic of Vietnam, headed by the Us-supported Ngo Dinh Diem, refused to hold the reunification elections, knowing that President Ho Chi Minh would have won overwhelmingly.
This led to a supplementary 20 years of war - the American War.
In reality, both sides of the Dmz were anything but de-militarised, and the border was admittedly circumvented. The Ho Chi Minh Trails to the west, and secret sea routes to the east, enabled the north to send supplies to the revolutionaries in the south, thus by-passing a string of American firebases overlooking the Ben Hai River.
Quang Tri and Quang Binh, the two provinces closest to the Dmz, were the most heavily bombed and saw the highest casualties, civilian and military, American and Vietnamese, during the American War.
Now, most bomb craters have been filled in, and there is a surprising green sea of rice, eucalyptus, acacia, pepper and rubber trees, but the terrible inheritance of war still goes on:
Us chemical weapons, such as Agent Orange, continue killing and affecting time to come generations with birth defects.
Unexploded bombs and landmines, lurking in the Dmz have, since 1975, caused many thousands of deaths and injuries, and continue to cause war casualties into the future.
'The McNamara Line'
One of the more fantastical efforts to preclude infiltration southwards, was Us Secretary of Defence, Robert S. McNamara's proposal for an 'electronic fence' over the Dmz.
Known as "the McNamara Line", and running from the Vietnamese coast to the Mekong River, the idea was to use seismic and acoustic sensors to detect troop movements and pinpoint targets for bombing raids.
Though trials in 1967 met with some initial success, the costly plan was soon abandoned: the Vietnamese soon learnt how to 'confuse' the sensors and deliberately take off them and trigger them safely away from their trails.
Nor could huge bombing by artillery and aircraft defeat the North Vietnamese, who ultimately stormed the Dmz in 1972 and pushed the border 20 km supplementary south.
So much firepower was unleashed over this area, along with napalm and herbicides, that for years nothing would grow in the impacted, chemical-laden soil.
There was even an American plan to use nuclear bombs to generate an impenetrable radiation zone over the Dmz. Fortunately, this did not eventuate, but the total tonnage of accepted bombing was equivalent to many times the power of the atomic bomb dropped by the Us on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.
Highway One - North Of Hue:"Road without joy"
American troops were not the first to suffer heavy losses in this region. during the 1950's, French soldiers dubbed the stretch of Highway 1 north of Hue as "street without joy", after they came under constant strike from elusive Viet Minh units operating out of heavily fortified villages along the coast.
Quang Tri
In the 1972 Easter Offensive, revolutionary troops overran the whole area, liberating Quang Tri town (60 km north of Hue) from the South Vietnamese army (Arvn). They held it for months, while American B-52 bombers pounded the township and surrounding countryside with a tonnage of bombs equivalent to 8 Hiroshima nuclear bombs!
Eventually, it was retaken at huge cost to both sides, as well as civilians. The town was wiped off the map, and now microscopic remains of the old Quang Tri Citadel, built in 1824 by king Minh Mang. The town of Trieu Hai has risen in its stead. The road and railway share a bridge over the Quang Tri River.
Dong Ha
Dong Ha town - the most northerly main town in what used to be South Vietnam - took over as provincial capital when Quang Tri town ceased to exist. It is 13km north of Quang Tri town. As a old Us marine Command Post and then Arvn base, Dong Ha was also obliterated in 1972 but, unlike Quang Tri, it has bounced back, largely due to its location at the junction with Highway 9, which leads to Laos.
Doc Mieu Firebase
The American front line comprised a string of firebases set up on a long, low ridge of hills looking north over the Dmz and the featureless plain of the Ben Hai River.
8km south of the Ben Hai River and just off Highway 1, is this old American base, once part of 'the McNamara Line'. It has been extensively picked over by scrap-metal collectors, and recently by American veteran groups searching for Mias (missing in actions). Most of the remains unearthed in up-to-date years have been those of Vietnamese.
Con Thien Firebase
This was America's largest firebase, first established by the extra troops (Green Berets), and then handed over to the Marines in 1966. From here, their big guns could reach far into North Vietnam.
In the lead up to the 1968 Tet Offensive, as part of the diversionary attacks, the base became the target of prolonged shelling, followed by an infantry assault, during which it was briefly surrounded.
The Americans replied with all in their arsenal, along with long-range strafing from gunships in the East Sea, and carpet-bombing by B-52s. More than 40,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped around Con Thien, transforming the hills into a smoking moonscape. The revolutionaries were forced to withdraw temporarily, but then completely overran the base in the summer of 1972.
Hien Luong Bridge
15 km north of Dong Ha, Highway 1 drops down into the Dmz, running between paddy fields to the Ben Hai River, which lies virtually on the 17th parallel.
The former Hien Luong Bridge was destroyed by American bombing in 1967. At the time, it was painted ½ red and ½ yellow, a vivid reminder that this was a physical and ideological boundary separating the two zones of Viet Nam.
The present old iron-girder bridge was reconstructed in 1973, and officially re-opened in 1975 as a symbol of reunification. The current new bridge opened around 1999. The railway does not share the same bridge as Highway One.
Where Highway 1 crosses the Ben Hai River, there is a statue recording the dates of the temporary department in 1954, and the eventual reunification in 1975, and this famed quote from Ho Chi Minh:
"Vietnam is one country; the Vietnamese are one people. Rivers may dry up, and mountains may erode away, but nothing can convert this truth." (Ho Chi Minh).
Vinh Moc Tunnels
About 16 kms from Highway 1, you can visit an fabulous involved of tunnels, where over a thousand habitancy sheltered, sometimes for weeks on end, during the worst American bombardments.
When American bombing raids north of the Dmz intensified in 1966, the inhabitants of Vinh Linh district began digging down into the red laterite soils, excavating more than 50 tunnels over the next two years.
Although they were also used by northern soldiers, the tunnels were primarily built to security a largely civilian habitancy who worked the supply route from the Con Co Islands offshore.
Five tunnels belonged to Vinh Moc, a hamlet located right on the coast. For two years, 250 habitancy dug more than 2km of tunnel, which housed all 600 villagers over varying periods from early 1967 until 1969, when ½ decamped north to the relative protection of Nghe An Province.
The tunnels were constructed on three levels at 10, 15 and 20-23m deep, with good ventilation, freshwater wells and, eventually, a generator and lights. The secret hamlet was also equipped with school, clinics, and a maternity room where 17 children were born. Each house was allocated a tiny cavern, barely larger than a singular bed. These tunnels were built taller than the Cu Chi Tunnels.
In 1972, the villagers of Vinh Moc could ultimately abandon their secret existence and rebuild their homes, rejoined by relatives from Nghe An one year later.
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