Câu chuyện kịch sử Việt Nam (The history of Vietnam)

Hello everyone, welcome to the History Show, one of the articles specializing in the history of Vietnam. First, a legendary road in Vietnam that perhaps everyone knows is the Ho Chi Minh Trail. However, not everyone knows about another legendary road, a mythical road that later impressed engineers from China, Russia, and America. That road is the oil pipeline running along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a road that the Americans could never imagine, leading them to complain that Vietnam's oil pipeline was a true legend.

From 1968 to 1974, the Vietnamese military built the world's longest oil pipeline at the time, with a total length of 5,000 km. It wasn't until 10 years later that China managed to build a pipeline of similar length. This pipeline was crucial because it provided fuel for trucks carrying supplies to the battlefield, tanks, and planes to fight, contributing to the liberation of the South and the reunification of the country. This importance was so great that the leaders of the General Department of Logistics once said that if they had to gold-plate the comrades building this pipeline, they wouldn't hesitate.

Why is it called legendary? Because its construction was meticulous and secretive. Everyone knows that America is the father of the oil industry, and they understand more than anyone how important oil is to each nation. They kept asking how our vehicles had fuel to run and where our planes and tanks got their fuel to fight.

At A8, all fuel trucks waiting for reinforcements to the southern battlefield were heavily bombed, forcing our soldiers to come up with various ways to obtain fuel. The initial solution was to put gasoline in plastic bags and carry them in backpacks to the battlefield, but this couldn't be done long-term as it was inefficient and many soldiers were poisoned by lead. Next, they tried using 20-liter cans or Van Trung to pump gasoline across streams, but this method was also ineffective as it took too long.

Finally, our soldiers came up with the idea of connecting various pipes, from water pipes to stakes to bamboo pipes. This method was quite effective, but bamboo couldn't withstand pressure for long periods. After the bamboo absorbed the oil, it was tested over a short distance but couldn't be used over thousands of kilometers. During a trip to the Soviet Union, General Vo Nguyen Giap saw their oil transportation system and brought the idea back to Vietnam. However, the conditions in the Soviet Union and Vietnam were very different, especially in terms of air defense and war conditions.

Lieutenant General Dinh Duc Thien took on the responsibility of investigating and promptly implementing this idea. The system had to be built secretly so that the enemy wouldn't detect it. Installing the pipeline across rivers had to ensure that it wouldn't be swept away by floods and that no part of it would be visible on land. In mountainous areas, soldiers had to use pumps to create pressure in stages.

This pipeline system eventually operated effectively and set a record at that time. Even when the US returned to bomb Hanoi and Haiphong in 1972, the pipeline system continued to ensure fuel supply from Lang Son, receiving fuel from the Soviet Union through Phong Thanh port in China. With a total length of 5,000 km, Vietnam's oil pipeline system was the longest in the world at the time and made the Americans exclaim that it was a true legend.

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