<text id=00he1805><title>Ho Chi Minh Trail</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>Ho Chi Minh Trail</hdr><body>
<p>The primary supply network was the famed Ho Chi Minh trail, first used as a portage route during World War II, and again during the postwar fighting with the French. In the dry season, the trucks rumbled along its rolling contours; in the rains, the roads were still passable by bicycle and foot. Most of the trail lay within Laos, under a jungle canopy of triple-layered foliage. It was extremely difficult to attack for that single reason.
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<p>The weather was a complicating factor. The southwest monsoon caused heavy rains and thunderstorms in South Vietnam from May until October, but created the best weather for the strikes against the North. When the northeast monsoon hit from September to May, it made for foul weather over the targets during that period. Typically, only five or six days might be clear enough for visual attacks.
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<p>Rolling Thunder was planned as an interdiction campaign, and it was waged simultaneously with other air strikes and campaigns as part of a four-front aerial war. Parallel campaigns included the interdiction strikes against the Ho Chi Minh trail in the Laotian panhandle, the attacks on roads and trails in South Vietnam, and the attacks against the Communist lines of communication in northern Laos.
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<p>There was a fundamental difference between the opinions of the Joint Chiefs and of some of the intelligence branches of government. The Chiefs were convinced that Rolling Thunder and other bombing attacks would achieve their purpose; the intelligence people argued that they would be of little or no value. The JCS countered with the argument, unanswerable then and now, that if the bombing were of little value, it was because of self-imposed restraints.
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<p>Those restraints, often compared to fighting the war with one hand tied, were political. Primary among them was the desire to avoid doing anything that would draw in either the Chinese or the Russians and widen the war to a world conflict, possibly with nuclear weapons. In many cases, these rules of engagement were turned against the US and RVN forces. One example was the prohibition on bombing the dikes that dammed the rice paddies of the North. This known, the North Vietnamese installed anti-aircraft batteries and SAM sites alongside or even on the dikes, knowing full well that they would be safe from any deliberate attack.
