‘There is nothing that is difficult’: History and hardship on and after the Ho Chi Minh Trail in north Vietnam

TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘There is nothing that is difficult’

T2 - History and hardship on and after the Ho Chi Minh Trail in north Vietnam

AU - McElwee, Pamela

PY - 2005/12

Y1 - 2005/12

N2 - The North Vietnamese Army considered the Ho Chi Minh Trail a key part of their victory during the Vietnam War against the United States. The trail was often defended by encouraging large numbers of lowland Vietnamese villagers to show their patriotism by moving to the uplands. Ho Chi Minh himself said of the enormous task of making the trail, ‘There is nothing that is difficult’. Based on fieldwork in Ha Tinh province, where the trail began, this paper addresses what happened after the war to the many migrants who had moved to defend and support the trail. After 1975, many families had expected increased government support as a thank you for their tremendous patriotism and sacrifice during the war. Instead, they became gradually disillusioned with collective farming, and later with the retreat of state services, and incidences of social protest and discontent have been increasingly clamorous in the post-war era.

AB - The North Vietnamese Army considered the Ho Chi Minh Trail a key part of their victory during the Vietnam War against the United States. The trail was often defended by encouraging large numbers of lowland Vietnamese villagers to show their patriotism by moving to the uplands. Ho Chi Minh himself said of the enormous task of making the trail, ‘There is nothing that is difficult’. Based on fieldwork in Ha Tinh province, where the trail began, this paper addresses what happened after the war to the many migrants who had moved to defend and support the trail. After 1975, many families had expected increased government support as a thank you for their tremendous patriotism and sacrifice during the war. Instead, they became gradually disillusioned with collective farming, and later with the retreat of state services, and incidences of social protest and discontent have been increasingly clamorous in the post-war era.

KW - Anthropology of war

KW - Ho Chi Minh Trail

KW - Nationalism

KW - Postsocialism

KW - Vietnam

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85010687888&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85010687888&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - https://doi.org/10.1080/14442210500337953

DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/14442210500337953

M3 - Article

SN - 1444-2213

VL - 6

SP - 197

EP - 214

JO - Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology

JF - Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology

IS - 3

ER -