It is possible to do a day trip from Hue The DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). It was a large border area that divided the North and South of Vietnam during the First Indochina War and during the Vietnam War in 1975 became a strategic battle ground. The DMZ is 250 km (160 miles) long and approximately 4 km (2.5 miles) wide. The boundary stretches 32km on either side of the Ben Hai River all the way to the Lao border. Hein Luong Bridge which crosses the Ben Hai River is where most tours start as it was the diving line between the South and North. It then became the former border between the two regions from 1954 to 1972 when the North Vietnamese Army captured Dong Ha town in the 1972.
10,000 graves of volunteer youth soldiers who fought during the American War dot the hillsides and stand as the Trường Sơn Martyrs National Cemetery. In 1968 a fierce battle was waged for the city during the Tet Offensive and here in the cemetery lie many of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong fighters as well as the civilians that were killed. White tomb stones are inscribed simply with Phrase hero or martyr.
The Rock Pile (literally a pile of rocks) was once The Elliott Combat Base an American military base. The buildings where completely destroyed by the Americans on evacuation of the base, leaving a prominent original monument labeled the pile of rocks the former outpost, and a dirty airstrip.
There is a small museum and two crashed US helicopters at Khe Sanh Combat base, a former United States Marine Corps outpost and airstrip built in 1962. It was the site of a famous siege during the American War. Fighting began in late April 1967 with the Hill fights later expanding into the 1968 Battle of the base.
The largest fire base of the US Marines Camp Carroll, named after a Marine Corp Captain James J. Carroll who was killed while trying to seize a nearby ridge, sits below the DMZ. 80 artillery pieces including M107, 175mm guns which could fire a 150-pound projectile 32,690 meters and shelled targets as far away as Khe Sanh provided fire support for the Marines.
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