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 Mountain 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.

(Source: VNA)