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The Hồ Chí Minh trail (also known in Vietnam as the "Trường Sơn trail") was a logistical system that ran from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) through the neighboring kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia. The system provided support, in the form of manpower and materiel, to the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (called the Vietcong or "VC" by its opponents) and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), or North Vietnamese Army, during the Vietnam War. It was named by the Americans after North Vietnamese president Hồ Chí Minh. Although the trail was mostly in Laos, the communists called it the Trường Sơn Strategic Supply Route, after the Vietnamese name for the Annamite Range mountains in central Vietnam.〔Military History Institute of Vietnam, ''Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975'' (trans. by Merle Pribbenow, Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 2002, p. 28.〕 According to the United States National Security Agency's official history of the war, the Trail system was "one of the great achievements of military engineering of the 20th century."〔Robert J. Hanyok, ''Spartans in Darkness''. Washington, D.C.: Center for Cryptographic History, NSA, 2002, p. 94.〕 ==Origins (1959–1965)== Parts of what became the trail had existed for centuries as primitive footpaths which facilitated trade in the region. The area through which the system meandered was among the most challenging in Southeast Asia: a sparsely-populated region of rugged mountains (), triple-canopy jungle and dense primeval rainforests. During the First Indochina War the Việt Minh maintained north/south communication utilizing this system of trails and paths. In 1959, Hanoi established the 559th Transportation Group under the command of Colonel (later General) Võ Bẩm to improve and maintain a transportation system to supply the NLF uprising against the South Vietnamese government.〔John Morocco, ''Rain of Fire'', Boston: Boston Publishing Company, 1985, p. 26.〕 Originally, the North Vietnamese effort concentrated on infiltration across and immediately below the Demilitarized Zone that separated the two Vietnams.〔Bernard C. Nalty. ''The War Against Trucks: Aerial Interdiction in Southern Laos, 1968–1972''. Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2005, pp. 3–4.〕 As early as May 1958 PAVN and Pathet Lao forces had seized the transportation hub at Tchepone, on Laotian Route 9.〔John Prados, ''The Blood Road'', New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1998, p. 24.〕 This had been accomplished due to the results of elections in May that had brought a right-wing government to power in Laos, its increasing dependence on U.S. military and economic aid, and an increasingly antagonistic attitude toward North Vietnam.〔For an overview of Laotian affairs in the late 1950s and early 1960s, see Arnold Isaacs, Gordon Hardy, MacAlister Brown, et al., ''Pawns of War''. Boston: Boston Publishing Company, 1987, pp. 8–70.〕 The 559th Group "flipped" its line of communications to the western side of the Trường Sơn mountains.〔Prados, p. 15.〕 By 1959, the 559th had 6,000 personnel in two regiments alone, the 70th and 71st,〔''Victory in Vietnam'', p. 88.〕 not including combat troops in security roles or North Vietnamese and Laotian civilian laborers. In the early days of the conflict the trail was used strictly for the infiltration of manpower. This was due to the fact that Hanoi could supply its southern allies much more efficiently by sea.〔In 1959 the North Vietnamese created Transportation Group 759, which was equipped with twenty (20) steel-hulled vessels just to carry out such infiltration. ''Victory in Vietnam'', p. 88.〕 After the initiation of U.S. naval interdiction efforts in coastal waters, known as Operation Market Time, the trail had to do double duty. Materiel sent from the north was stored in caches in the border regions that were soon retitled Base Areas, which, in turn, became sanctuaries for NLF and PAVN forces seeking respite and resupply after conducting operations within South Vietnam.〔Brig. Gen. Soutchay Vongsavanh, ''RLG Operations and Activities in the Laotian Panhandle''. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 1980, p. 12.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ho Chi Minh trail」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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