By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday , April 6, 2000 ; A16

HANOI, April 5, 2000 Government workers broke ground today on an ambitious project to build a 1,000-mile-long national highway along parts of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the celebrated network of jungle roads that funneled Communist troops and supplies to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

The government says it believes the road, which could be as wide as six lanes on some stretches, will turn one of the best-known landmarks of the war into a catalyst for economic growth. It will spur development in Vietnam's mountainous western provinces, officials predict, and ease congestion along the only other north-south highway, a two-lane coastal road that routinely floods during the monsoon season.

Twenty-five years after its victory, Vietnam's Communist government is transforming the trail and many other war relics into economic assets. Several former U.S. military bases, for instance, have been turned into special export-processing zones that are home to garment and consumer-products factories. "It was a road of determination to win, [a road] of valor and of national spirit," Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said at the groundbreaking ceremony in the tiny village of Son Trach in central Vietnam, the Associated Press reported. "The new Ho Chi Minh Highway, which will run the length of the country, will facilitate travel in the central area during the rainy season and connect it with other countries in the region."

The first phase of construction, expected to last three years and cost $380 million, will run from a point in the north near Hanoi, the capital, southward about 625 miles into the central province of Cong Tum, officials said. The schedule for further phases was not announced.

Some outside experts doubt the potential benefit of the project, asking whether Vietnam's government is simply trying to glorify a popular symbol of its victory. "This is outrageously inefficient," said Adam Forde, a senior fellow in the Southeast Asian studies program at the National University of Singapore. "They should be spending the money on improving other parts of their infrastructure." Many of Vietnam's roads are in disrepair, and the narrow streets in its main cities are congested with bicycles and the country's 5.6 million motorcycles, making commutes maddeningly long. In rural provinces, the road network is so poor that foreign firms are reluctant to set up factories there. "This is more symbolic than anything else," said Ton That Quynh Du, a Vietnam expert at Australian National University. "The practical value is reasonably doubtful because it bypasses most of the population, which is on the coast."

The trail began in 1959 as a muddy path used to ferry people and supplies on foot and by bicycle. As the war escalated, it expanded into a series of parallel and partially paved roads, meandering at length through neighboring Cambodia and Laos with cross routes into Vietnam at numerous points.

By the time the war ended, the network spanned about 12,500 miles. The jungle paths vexed American military commanders, who ordered countless bombings of the trail but were unable to fully shut it down. Efforts to disrupt the supply network also drew U.S. soldiers into secret skirmishes in Cambodia. The steady stream of North Vietnamese soldiers, irregular fighters and munitions that flooded the South came to represent the inability of the U.S. military to deal with the guerrilla tactics employed by the North.

After the war ended, the trail ceased to be used as an active transportation network and large stretches were swallowed by the jungle. The vast majority of north-south traffic shifted to the coastal highway, which today is still not overly congested. But government officials insist the new road makes sense.

"The western corridor is untapped," said one official with the Communications and Transport Ministry, which is overseeing the construction. The official said the highway, which would give farmers easier access to urban markets, would lead to the planting of cash crops in the region.

U.S. efforts to disrupt the trail a quarter-century ago, however, could pose a problem: Workers have found an unexpectedly large number of unexploded bombs and land mines scattered along the route, which officials say could delay the project. According to the government, more than 600 land mines and bombs had to be deactivated in one 3.5-acre area along the route. And on March 30, engineers found an unexploded 1,000-pound bomb along a river bed that was being cleared for the highway.

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