Lao and Vietnamese porters carrying supplies south along the Hoi Chi Minh Trail to resupply the insurgency in the south, c. 1963.

The Ho Chi Minh 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, or derogatively, Vietcong, and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), or North Vietnamese Army, during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). The trail was not a single route, but rather a complex maze of truck routes, paths for foot and bicycle traffic, and river transportation systems. The name, taken from North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh, is of American origin. Although the trail was mostly in Laos, the communists called it the Truong Son Strategic Supply Route, after a mountain range in central Vietnam. According to the U.S. 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'. (Photo by: Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)