The origin of the legendary road

(Baonghean)-On May 19, 1959, Uncle Ho decided to establish a strategic transport route to support the South.Maleand other countries. The starting point in Lat town (Tan Ky district, Nghe An) is marked by Milestone No. 0. From here, the Truong Son - Ho Chi Minh road has developed into a network with 5 longitudinal axes of East and West Truong Son, 21 continuous transverse axes, with a total length of nearly 20,000 km; in addition, there is a river route with 500 km, a petroleum pipeline with a total length of 1,400 km.

On November 27, 1972, officers and soldiers of Group 559 started construction of the Eastern Truong Son motorized road starting from Tan Ky to Loc Ninh (Binh Phuoc). This was a vital route providing logistics resources, contributing to the historic victory of April 30, 1975 for the army and people of the whole country, completely liberating the South and unifying the country.

First day of construction of Milestone 0

To have the Truong Son road with so many heroic victories of a historical period and to have what it is today, we had to go through a long revolutionary period with so much sweat and tears, in exchange for the blood sacrifices of many generations of predecessors. After 16 years of fighting in the resistance war against the US, more than 23,000 people heroically sacrificed, more than 30,000 people left a part of their body on the Truong Son mountain range, tens of thousands of people were infected with toxic chemicals whose pain still lingers until now...

During his visit to Truong Son troops in 1973, comrade Le Duan said: “The Truong Son Road is a brilliant feat in the history of our nation’s resistance war against the US to save the country. The Truong Son Road is the road of the will to win, of courage and heroic spirit. It is the road connectingMale- The reunification of the country is the path to a rich future for our Fatherland.”

The Ho Chi Minh Trail not only played an important role in the war but also plays an important role in economic and social development today... In 1989, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was rebuilt according to national standards and associated with this legendary road is Milestone 0. On April 27, 1990, Milestone 0 was recognized as a National Historical Site. In 2007, the Prime Minister signed a decision approving the master plan of the Ho Chi Minh Trail with a total length of about 3,167 km. Accordingly, this route is designed according to the standards of expressways and regular automobile roads, passing through 30 provinces and centrally run cities, from Cao Bang, Bac Kan to Bac Lieu and Ca Mau.

Milestone 0 becomes an attractive tourist destination

Currently, Milestone 0 has been built, renovated and become an attractive tourist destination with an area of ​​600m2, with a traditional house displaying wartime artifacts. Tan Ky district is also urgently completing the project to display artifacts at the Milestone 0 relic site to submit to competent authorities for approval in 2011.

Comrade Tran Van Minh - Director of Tan Ky Culture, Sports and Tourism Center said: Since the Ho Chi Minh road was expanded, every day domestic and international tourist groups passing through here stop to visit and learn about the origin of this legendary road. This is also a place to serve the needs of entertainment, improving the spiritual life of people in neighboring areas.

With those values, Milestone 0 deserves to be invested in and upgraded more to build it into a "return to the source" tourist destination and route for Nghe An tourism in particular and Vietnam in general on the legendary road named Ho Chi Minh.

Duc Chuyen