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

Book review from The NYMAS REVIEW, No. 39, Fall 2006

Publication of the New York Military Affairs Symposium

The Road to Freedom is actually several books in one. It provides an interesting history of the origins, development, and operation of the famed Ho Chi Minh Trail, which sustained the flow of supplies to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam. The author conducted numerous interviews with veterans of the war, from citizens and private soldiers to General Vo Nguyen Giap. In addition to the historical treatment of the trail, the author looks at the impact of the war on the people who worked or lived along it and she provides an excellent travelogue of the trail, with numerous illustrations, many in color. The author manages to braid these three somewhat disparate threads together rather nicely, making for a readable, interesting work. The Road to Freedom will be useful to anyone interested in the Vietnam War.

[Read a review from the Journal of the Siam Society] [Read the foreword by Gen. Sir John Reith] [Read praise for this book from prominent sources] [Read a review from The Barrister] [More Orchid Press Reviews]