Ho Chi Minh Trail

The Norden Bombsight: Was it Truly Accurate Beyond Belief?

By Roaul Drapeau

In a 1921 bombing test, U.S. Army Air Corps General Billy Mitchell’s airmen sank the former German battleship Ostfriesland. Read more

Ho Chi Minh Trail

The Marines and North Vietnamese at Khe Sanh

By John Walker

In early 1967, the thinly populated, rugged, and mountainous Khe Sanh plateau lay in the northwest corner of South Vietnam, bordered by Laos to the west and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and North Vietnam to the north. Read more

Ho Chi Minh Trail

The Heroism of Vision: Photographs from the Battlefield

By Al Hemingway

On the morning of February 23, 1945, on the tiny Pacific island of Iwo Jima, a 40-man patrol gathered at the 5th Marine Division headquarters for their final briefing with battalion commander Lt. Read more

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Bloody Clash at the Battle of Ia Drang

By Christopher Miskimon

Specialist 4 George McDonald leaped out of a UH-1 helicopter on November 14, 1965, into a hellish firefight. Read more

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Vietnam War Weapons: The AC-47 Gunship

By Christopher Miskimon

The night of October 17, 1969, was a harrowing one for the South Vietnamese soldiers at Phung Hiep Army outpost. Read more

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Operation Niagara & the Battle of Khe Sanh

By Brad Reynolds

As American involvement in Vietnam escalated throughout the 1960s, American military commanders struggled to justify their strategy of attrition and prove that an end to the war was in sight. Read more

Ho Chi Minh Trail

The Nightmare Mission Into Laos: Operation Lam Son 719

By William E. Welsh

The South Vietnamese raid into the Laotian panhandle in February 1971 only confirmed what everyone already knew. Read more

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Game Features: Vietnam 65

by James Hart

No static occupations, no traditional front lines, and growing opposition from both the local population and citizens back home—for America, Vietnam was a very different kind of war. Read more