The Road to Redemption

We could tell you the truth about the Ho Chi Minh Trail, but the authorities might arrest us for spying." Ho Thi Van throws back her wrinkled face and cackles at her own joke. It remains one of the most mysterious byways on earth, but Van and her husband, Phan Huu Luc, have a unique view of the Ho Chi Minh Trail: they've lived on it for more than 30 years. Luc spent three of them in backbreaking labor, carrying ammunition and rice to North Vietnamese troops as American bombs rained down. "It was a hard job," says Luc, now 70....

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