Book Reviews

A History of the Ho Chi Minh Trail

The Road to Freedom

Virginia Morris

with

Clive Hills

2006. 196 pp., 107 colour, 24 b & w illustrations, 11 maps, index, 245 x 175, Hardcover

ISBN-10: 974-524-076-1 $29.95
ISBN-13: 978-974-524-076-6

Foreword by General Sir John Reith KCB CBE

Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Colonel Commandant, The Parachute Regiment

The Road to Freedom is an account, masterfully told, of one of Indochina’s greatest military enigmas; the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This book, wonderfully illustrated with a wealth of maps and photographs, charts the author’s journey from this main supply route’s beginning in North Vietnam, through the mountainous forests of Laos and back into South Vietnam to its end in what is now Ho Chi Minh City.
This was a pilgrimage, the outcome of which remained uncertain until it was completed; largely because the trail has been shrouded in mystery since the end of the Vietnam War, due to its inaccessibility to western visitors. Through her painstaking research of military history and unparalleled access to General Vo Nguyen Giap, Virginia Morris brings to life the achievements and indeed sacrifices of those responsible for building the trail; the Truong Son Army. The account of her personal battle against adversity encountered in the particularly inhospitable environment bears testament to the brave TSA soldiers of Corps 559, who toiled to keep supplies flowing to support their operation in South Vietnam.
As the first westerners to travel the trail, the author and her husband have laid bare some of its greatest secrets. The descriptions of the trail’s natural beauty are tempered by those of the scars of war, both mental and physical, which serve as a reminder of the tragedy that befell Vietnam.

[Read a review from the Journal of the Siam Society] [Read a review from The NYMAS REVIEW] [Read praise for this book from prominent sources] [Read a review from The Barrister] [More Orchid Press Reviews]