The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War

by John Prados

"Enormously illuminating. . . . John Prados can lead a reader, from the battle buff to the expert, through the series of campaigns near the DMZ and along Route 9 better than any other author I have read. . . . His understanding of the decision-making process in Hanoi is nuanced and sophisticated. . . . A first-rate book from a first-rate scholar." Robert K. Brigham, Vassar College

"The most comprehensive treatment yet of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and its place in the war." Washington Post

"An excellent book about one of the most important facets of the Vietnam War. . . . From now on it will be irresponsible for any Vietnam War scholar to deal with the strategy for this still controversial conflict without referring to The Blood Road, a thoughtful, painstakingly researched book." The Quarterly Journal of Military History

"A valuable work of interest to all scholars of the Vietnam War." Journal of Military History

Could the United States have won the Vietnam War if it had been able to cut off the Viet Cong from their North Vietnamese support by severing the Ho Chi Minh Trail? Acclaimed historian John Prados tackles this crucial question in this elegant, unprecedented, and exciting work of historical scholarship. Aided by recently declassified government documents and previously unavailable oral histories, memoirs, and interviews, Prados explores all sides of the conflict, providing details of the action in Hanoi and North Vietnam and avoiding the narrowly focused battle histories, atomized individual accounts, and overly generalized visions dominating previous histories.

A History Book Club Selection

Genres: History, Military Fiction, Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Dr. John Prados is an American historian & researcher whose primary areas of specialisation are the history of World War II, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and politico-military affairs generally. He earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University in Political Science (International Relations). Dr. Prados is a senior fellow and project director with the National Security Archive at George Washington University (Washington, D.C.).

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very good, comprehensively telling the story of American involvement in Vietnam through the lens of the Trail. Moves from political to tactical narratives with equal facility, spanning a decade and a half and the territory of five countries. Unfortunately limited by completely inadequate sourcing, which makes it impossible to retrace the author's steps or to even guess at the provenance of well more than half the statistics and other factual claims. Sections concerning DRV/communist strategy limited somewhat by publication date, now surpassed (in English) by Pribbenow and Lien-Hang Nguyen.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A readable and detailed general history of the Trail network.

Prados describes how the Trail was developed and maintained; how it sucked in the involvement of outside players like Cambodia, Laos, China, and the Soviet Union; the related covert operations in Laos and Cambodia; and the huge amount of time, energy, resources, and lived the US devoted to monitoring and disrupting the traffic there. He notes that, despite the scope of the American effort, the Trail expanded every year. He describes the hardships suffered by the communists in enduring US bombing, starvation, extreme weather, harsh terrain, disease, and all kinds of dangerous animals.

Prados ably describes how the Trail was impacted by political and military decisions on all sides. He also concludes that the US was unable to sever the Trail by military means (an obvious point) but doesn’t really assess possible alternatives. The endnotes only seem to be related to quotes Prados uses. Also, the book often reads like a mass of facts, and the book doesn’t really have a solid conclusion.

A well-researched, in-depth and engaging work.

[Nadir · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very compelling story of the logistic lifeline that allowed the North Vietnamese to win the war in Southeast Asia. Prados expounds on the trail's early days all the way through the collapse of the South in 1975. He goes into considerable detail about the various open and secret methods the US used against the trail including reconnaissance teams, aerial bombardment, and specialized detection systems. He also spends a good deal of time on the politics surrounding the various efforts both in terms of the surrounding nations and US domestic upheavals. Fascinating reading.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had some interesting tidbits here and there,
but mostly a rehash of what 100 others have said.

Starting with the French takeover in 1885, the Japanese occupation.... etc etc etc

The maps were poor and generally didn't have the place names he was talking about.

A lot of worthless detail, who cares what Walt Rostow's middle name is?
Or the initial of so many people's middle name?

Was a happy moment when I got to the last page.

[Paul Medici · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read to understand the complexities of this trail system!

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as good as "lost over Laos" maybe because this was published in 1998 and Pyle's book in 2003 and just that much more information was avaialble in those 5 years. This book though does try to synthesize happenings and thoughts from all angles, usa, vietnam, laos, china, russia, etc as it looks at vietnam war, especially regarding the ho chi minh trail. btw the trail was really a huge series of roads, more like a day old spider web broken by the wind and all streaming out in a hand like fashion.

[Kathy Dobronyi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read five chapters whose dates ran from 1954 to 1965, the period of time I am most interested in Viet Nam. John Prados' well-researched information helped me understand the forces driving the Vietnam War and the necessity of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.