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Vietnam Destinations
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 | Destinations >> Coastal Lowlands :> Coastal Lowlands - DMZ “DMZ,” which means demilitarized zone, is a military term that refers to the frontier or boundary between two or more military powers where military activities is not permitted, usually by peace treaty, armistice or other bilateral or multilateral agreement. The DMZ in Vietnam laying at the 17th parallel, extended about 5 kilometers on either side of the Ben Hai River and ran west to east from the Laotian border to the South China Sea, was created by an agreement known as the Geneva Accords on July 21, 1954. The DMZ temporarily divided Vietnam into two states, Communist North Vietnam and "Free" South Vietnam. The Geneva Accords promised elections in 1956 to determine a national government for a united Vietnam. However, only France and the North Vietnamese government (DRV) signed the document. The U.S. and the government in Saigon refused to abide by the agreement, believing that the election would result in an easy victory for Ho Chi Minh. Emperor Bao Dai, from his home in France, appointed Ngo Dinh Diem as Prime Minister of South Vietnam. With American support, in 1955, Diem used a rigged referendum to remove the Emperor and declare himself president of the Republic of Vietnam.
Thus the competition for the whole of Vietnam began; Diem's military was unable to prevail in the civil war which escalated, as a result of international intervention, into the Vietnam, which is also referred to as the Second Indochina War. The DMZ was breached by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) when they constructed the Ho Chi Minh Trail that allowed for the transport of troops and supplies to the National Liberation Front (NLF), or Vietcong, in the south. The U.S. military and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), in an attempt to stem the flow of soldiers and supplies, built a series of bases surrounded by barbed wire, electrified fencing, and land mines along Route 9, about six miles south of and parallel to the DMZ. That series of bases became known as the “ McNamara Line,” so named for Robert S. McNamara, then U.S. secretary of defense. Some of the war's fiercest fighting and bloodiest battles occurred along that line. Such areas are Khe Sanh, Camp Carroll, and the Rockpile — a hill in the middle of the Cam Lo valley.
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