Vietnam War: Saigon, Hue and the Trail (1968)

The Trail was a network of roads and paths running from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia. Construction began after the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos in July 1959. It has been called "one of the great achievements of military engineering of the 20th century". Before Tet 1968, more than 81,000 tonnes of supplies were moved and stored along it for the offensive that began at the lunar new year.

Location precision: The Trail was a web of routes across three countries; the pin marks a point in Laos, not one road.

Outside Saigon, the Viet Cong used a tunnel network that served as hideouts, supply routes, hospitals and living quarters. It was their base of operations for the Tet Offensive in 1968. US forces tried to destroy it: Operation Crimp began on 7 January 1966. Air shafts let smoke escape. After the war it was preserved the area as a memorial park with two display sites, Bến Đình and Bến Dược. At Bến Dược, part of the original tunnels survives, and visitors can crawl through the safer sections.

Visitor guidance: Two memorial park sites, Bến Đình and Bến Dược, are open to visitors; Bến Dược has part of the original tunnels.

On 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese forces surrounded and besieged the Marine base at Khe Sanh. More than 274 US troops were killed and more than 2,500 wounded. In Operation Niagara, US and allied aircraft dropped over 114,810 tons of bombs. A relief force, Operation Pegasus, eventually broke through. On 19 June 1968 the evacuation and destruction began.

On 31 January 1968, as the Tet Offensive reached Saigon, 19 Viet Cong sappers blew a small hole in the embassy's perimeter wall on Thong Nhut Boulevard. By 09:00 the embassy was declared secure. The attack was tactically minor, yet had a profound political and psychological impact in the United States.

On 31 January 1968 a division-sized force of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers attacked Huế. The Battle of Huế lasted until 2 March. South Vietnamese and US forces drove the attackers out in intense house-to-house fighting. Inside the Citadel, one order stood out: the Imperial Palace was not to be fired on. Huế's monuments became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993, and the remaining buildings are being restored.

Visitor guidance: The Imperial City inside the Citadel is part of the Complex of Huế Monuments, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Then called the Independence Palace, it was the presidential palace of South Vietnam, designed by architect Ngô Viết Thụ, and one of six main targets in Saigon during Tet 1968. The war ended here seven years later. At 10:45 on 30 April 1975, a North Vietnamese tank bulldozed through the main gate. The building is now preserved as a convention hall for state events and as a museum open to the public.

Visitor guidance: Open to the public as a museum in Ho Chi Minh City.