Ho Chi Minh Trail to be turned into national highway HANOI - The Ho Chi Minh Trail, the snaking jungle thoroughfare that funneled communist troops and supplies during the Vietnam War, is to become a two-lane national highway. The Vietnamese government announced at a news conference Friday its plans for a roughly 1,000-mile road from the northern province of Ha Tay to the southern hub of Ho Chi Minh City, along the old route of Vietcong supply lines. Currently, Vietnam has only one north-south road stretching the length of the country. The government hopes the new road will ease congestion along National Highway 1, which is routinely flooded in the monsoon season. The planned two-lane road, slated for completion in 2003 at a cost of $375 million, would cut through 10 provinces and dense tropical jungle in less flood-prone territory. It's ultimately hoped to widen the highway into six lanes. The Ho Chi Minh trail started out in 1959 as little more than a muddy path for shuttling supplies on foot and bicycles. But by the end of the war in 1975 it had become a comprehensive transportation network with five main, roughly parallel roads and 21 crossroads covering nearly 12,500 miles. It also passed through neighboring Laos and Cambodia. The trail funneled supplies and troops from North Vietnam to battlefields in the South. Despite heavy U.S. bombing, the North Vietnamese managed to keep the trail open. That was key to their victory over the U.S.-backed government based in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. Associated Press - February 19, 2000.