The information provided is still relevant and the photography is superb. There are some difficult windows into the past displayed on this site but this trail was very important to both sides and the American effort to destroy it was no less courageous then the defense and repair of it by the North Vietnamese. I assume the author of this article is John R. Campbell, a civilian psychological warfare advisor in VietNam from 1965 to 1967, as revealed at end of article. He does seem to have a rather robust admiration for the enemy that I fought against but I believe the story to be historically correct, so a difference of opinion, not a difference in factual history, is okay with me. Our enemy was dedicated and motivated but was also under military command and following orders, or else ! I don't know if they had superiority over us in what he describes as motivation to go south, despite the risk. My motivation, despite political correctness as of late, was to fight a war that my country deemed necessary, in a foreign land, against a professional army on it's home turf, without support at home and with no goals other then to find and kill the enemy and hopefully come home in one piece. I believe the professionals on both sides knew what they were doing. Those like myself, drafted or enlisted for only a few years, trained and sent off to war, with little regard to personal sacrifice, found ourselves to be only a temporary solution to a long term problem. I have lived with the results of this war for over four decades now and I am capable of viewing the war from a different perspective now but I will never lose my own personal involvement and the demons and ghosts that accompany me forever. I also take exception to the following that was written under a photo: "Between 1964 and 1973 the US bombed Laos continuously despite Laos being a peaceful neutral country and despite the US never openly declaring war on Laos." This country was being used by the North Vietnamese as a safe haven and a way to resupply their effort to invade and overcome South VietNam and therefore this statement seems to me to show his bias against the war as fought by those like me. So Mike, thank you for posting this here, I am not bothered, I am grateful, but I do take some offense at the authors liberties in his obvious admiration for my once enemy.
Semper Fi