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DMZ ( Demilitarized zone) - Vietnam

For most people, the attraction of Quang Tri is the DMZ. However, there’s not

much left of the battlefields camps and firebases, most are unmarked, and there are

still problems with unexploded ordnance.

If you travel with Worldmatetravel, you’ll always have an expert guide who knows

the area like the back of his or her hand, and particularly anywhere that might pose

a safety risk.

If you’re interested in particular sites and locations, we’ll tailor-make your tour toyour requirements.

If you’re a returning veteran, or a friend or family member of someone who was in

Vietnam during the war, we’ll try to track down the exact places, and if possible,

local people who were present and remember what happened. We’re good at

tracking down clues to identifying specific places.

If you’re looking for a general overview of the DMZ, we’d usually include the main

sites, the bridges, the Vinh Moc and the Truong Son National Cemetery.

Possible sites could be La Vang Church, the Quang Tri Citadel, the Ai Tu Base andAirfield, Camp Carroll, The Rockpile, the Khe Sanh Marine Combat Base, Lang

Vay Special Forces Camp, Con Thien Firebase, the McNamara Line, the Dak Rong

Bridge, and the Doc Mieu Base.

The Ben Hai River and the Hien Luong bridge would also feature. The river runs

about 100km from its source to the sea, but was catapulted onto the international

stage when the 1954 Geneva Convention designated it as the demarcation line

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between the communist North Vietnam and the South (not the ‘17th Parallel’ often

mentioned in guide books).

Hien Luong was a steel bridge built by French sappers in 1950: previously, the only

means of crossing the river was by boat. When Vietnam was partitioned, the

northern half was painted red, and the southern yellow. The bridge was bombed todestruction by the US in 1970 – a pyrrhic victory as nearly all the troops, supplies

and weapons used the heavily disguised Ho Chi Minh Trail, not the exposed coastal

route.

There’s no point in visiting the Ho Chi Minh Trail, as there’s nothing to see – the

whole point was that it should be as invisible as possible. However, much of the

route is being reincarnated as the Truong Son Road, a new highway in the west

linking the two major cities designed to alleviate the pressure on Highway 1.

The Truong Son National Cemetery is another possible element. It’s built on several

low lying hills in Truong Son village, a memorial to the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese soldiers who died keeping the Ho Chi Minh Trail open. The history of 

the trail beggars the imagination – the cemetery commemorates the thousands of 

men and women who kept the link open throughout the war – engineers, gunners,

medical personnel, and a small army of young volunteers, some little more than

children, who worked ceaselessly each night to fill in the craters caused by incessant

bombing during the day.

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The only place to the north of the Ben Hai River that we visit is Vinh Moc. In June

1965, after heavy bombardments, the people of Vinh Moc village began digging

shelters beneath their houses to link them to the neighbours thus creating a web of 

tunnels. Everything was carefully planned to provide access to underground public

facilities, such as meeting rooms, a school, and a clinic where seventeen babies were

born.

Less sophisticated (but more authentic) than the more famous Cu Chi tunnels near

Saigon, and built for different purposes, the Vinh Moc passages and chambers are a

poignant example of the ingenuity of the ordinary Vietnamese people in coping with

life in the epicentre of one of the world’s most brutal conflicts.

Indochina Destinations

Vietnampictures