Located in the northern part of Central Vietnam, Quang Tri is the province where it was decided to establish a partition between North and South Vietnam in 1954, with Ben Hai River standing as the natural border.
The Demilitarized Zone or DMZ is the narrow strip of terrain of 5km on each side of the Ben Hai River, extending from the coast to the border with Laos, and roughly located on the 17th parallel north.
This area was the theater of huge bombings and intense fighting. Interesting war remains on both sides of the demarcation and are now open to visitors.
Hien Luong Bridge
Hien Luong Bridge crosses the Ben Hai River at the middle of the DMZ. During the partition of Vietnam, the old narrow bridge built by the French was painted in two different colors. On the north side is a huge flagpole with its base sporting a socialist mosaic, while the Reunification Memorial is located on the south side. On both sides, stacks of speakers are still visible, remnant from the propaganda war held on both sides of the river.
Vinh Moc Tunnels
Vinh Moc is a small village located in the northern side of the DMZ, on the shore of the Chinese Sea. As the bombings where very intense in the area, villagers dug tunnels to find shelter. The Americans believed the villagers were part of the logistic chain supplying food and armaments to the North Vietnam Army stationed on Con Co Island. Hence, they intensified the bombings on the village, resulting in villagers having to dig deeper to protect themselves from the attack. The tunnel network has three levels, the deepest one being at 30m underground, for a total length of 3km. The whole village, comprising of about 60 families, lived underground for years. Unlike the Cu Chi tunnels dedicated to battles, the Vinh Moc tunnels were only used for civilian purposes.
Truong Son War Cemetery
Truong Son Cemetery is the biggest of its kind: there are 10,000 graves of North Vietnamese soldiers killed on Ho Chi Minh road and along the DMZ. Many graves bear names but are in fact empty, representing a fraction of the 300,000 soldiers missing in action.
