In the resistance war against the U.S. to save the country in general and the air defence operation at the end of 1972 in particular, under the leadership of the Party, the transport sector promoted its core role to ensure smooth transportation and make an important contribution, along with the Northern armed forces and people, to defeating the US’s strategic air raid and providing valuable lessons for the cause of national defence and Fatherland protection in the current situation.

Recognising the strategic position and importance of transport for the struggle for national liberation, socio-economic development, and improvement of people's lives, immediately after the liberation of the North, under the leadership of the Party, the transport sector proactively overcame difficulties and focused on its comprehensive development. Along with changing its name from the Ministry of Public Transport to the Ministry of Transport and Post Office, the structure and organisational apparatus of the Ministry were also gradually strengthened and consolidated to be on par with the functions, tasks, requirements of the new revolutionary period. Accordingly, the railway system was restored to operate efficiently. Several national highways and waterway ports in the North were formed, particularly Hai Phong port, which played an important role in commodity transportation and foreign trade. Air transport routes were also gradually formed and developed with some airports, including Da Phuc (presently Noi Bai), Hoa Lac (former Ha Tay), Vinh (Nghe An), Kep (Bac Giang)... to contribute to implementing foreign affairs tasks, promoting socio-economic development, and strengthening the country's defence capability.

However, entering the resistance war against the U.S. to save the country, especially when the U.S. imperialists carried out the destructive war against the North, the above-mentioned transport systems became the target of the enemy's fierce attacks to prevent the North's support for the Southern battlefield and weaken the country's potentials. Therefore, transport assurance was an extremely difficult and strategically significant issue of our armed forces and people in combating against the US’s destructive war. In fact, the transport sector, as one of the leading forces, ensured smooth transport to perform the the task of supporting human and material power for the large southern frontline. Thousands of the sector’s cadres, technician, and self-defence workers contributed their efforts and intelligence, together with the armed forces, to surveying, forming, building, and maintaining the effective operation of the transport systems, typically two legendary strategic transport routes: the Ho Chi Minh land trail (Truong Son road) and Ho Chi Minh trail at sea. Bomb and mine disposal crews ensured the traffic for transport routes, opened estuaries and seaports to meet the transport needs for the battlefields, and became shining symbols of revolutionary heroism.

Transporting missile into the battleground in the air defence campaign in 1972

In particular, during the Air Defence Operation in late 1972, the North’s armed forces and people faced a strategic air raid mainly conducted by B-52 strategic bombers on Hanoi, Haiphong, and some nearby provinces in the North. In just 12 days and nights, the enemy deployed 193 B-52 aircraft and more than a thousand tactical ones with a sortie frequency of 4,583 times/aircraft (in which there were 663 sorties of B-52) to conduct the raid. In the Hanoi area alone, the enemy carried out 1,448 destructive attacks on targets, including transport systems.

In this historic confrontation, the transport sector continued playing a pivotal role in performing the task of transporting forces, vehicles, and materials and evacuating people, factories, and enterprises out of big cities. In the key area of Hanoi, we organised multiple roads and set up ferry terminals, such as Chuong Duong, Khuyen Luong, Chem,... and a number of pontoon bridges and ferries across Duong River to  evacuate 500,000 out of a total of 600,000 of people to safe zones. In particular, with the spirit of proactiveness and creativity, the sector successfully assembled ferries  and pontoon bridges for trains on the Hanoi - Thai Nguyen railway to  transport goods from the north bank to the south bank of the Red River; closely coordinated with army units in ensuring the manoeuvre routes for anti-aircraft artillery and missile units to deploy and transform the air defence posture to protect Hanoi's airspace. Cadres, workers, and self-defence forces of the sector crossed under the rain of enemy bombs, together with the main army, local troops, and people, to maintain and ensure smooth traffic for missile and anti-aircraft artillery units from Thanh Hoa and Hai Phong, especially missile assembly lines supplemented to the Hanoi battlefield, to contribute to defeating the enemy’s intentions of paralysing the fighting will of the Vietnamese people and threatening the world’s movement for peace and national independence and forcing the U.S. government to declare a cessation of bombing from the 20^th parallel northwards and return  to  the negotiating table. This was a huge success and also a unique feature during the late 1972 Air Defence Operation to defeat the enemy's strategic air raid. Therefore, it can be affirmed that the “Hanoi - Dien Bien Phu in the air” Victory is a combination of many factors: national power, time power, and power of the Vietnamese people's war in the Ho Chi Minh era, with the transportation sector’s important contribution.

From the practice of transport assurance during the Air Defence Operation at the end of 1972, valuable lessons can be learned, such as organising a strict operating system from the central to the grassroots to regulate traffic flows, especially in key areas and fierce situations, under the unified leadership and direction of the Party committees and authorities at all levels; combining the synergy of the forces: State and local transport, military transport, and people’s widespread transport; mobilising all vehicles and routes to ensure transport; actively grasping the enemy situation and taking advantage of the gap between the enemy’s air attacks and change of attack targets to carry out transportation; exploiting and utilising scientific and technological achievements to research and overcome obstacles and landmines... to ensure smooth traffic in all situations, etc.

Inheriting and creatively developing lessons on transport assurance in the cause of national liberation in general and the resistance war against the U.S. to save the country, especially in the air defence operation at the end of 1972, in particular, in the current renovation, construction, and protection of the Fatherland, especially the lesson on ensuring a synchronous, modern, and smooth air, land, and sea transport systems, under the leadership and direction of the Party, the transport sector has synchronously implemented multiple solutions to effectively implement the programs and goals set out to earn a strong development step.  First of all, the roadway infrastructure has been paid with attention in investment to make breakthroughs compared to other fields. During the 2011 - 2020 period, the Ministry invested in building many expressways to raise the total operational length of expressway to 1,163 km, and the national highway network’s total length to 24,598 km. The key national highways were gradually categorised into technical levels, while fundings were invested in border belt and coastal roads to facilitate socio-economic development, reduce traffic congestion, serve the manoeuvre and hiding of forces and technical means in handling defence and security situations at war, and strengthen the national defence and security of each locality, area, and strategic region.

For the civil aviation, further investments have been made in upgrading and expanding international airports of Tan Son Nhat, Noi Bai, and Da Nang; accelerating the construction of  Phase 1  of Long Thanh International Airport; upgrading and building other airports as planned,  such as Chu Lai, Cam Ranh, Phu Quoc, Phan Thiet, Cat Bi, Vinh, Phu Bai, Dien Bien... to  closely combine with the assurance of national defence, security, and economic development; establish and operate flight routes for the management and protection of airspace and waters and the operations of airports to ensure smooth coordination between civil and military aviation in performing well the tasks of training, combat readiness, and emergency operations, such as prevention and control of natural disasters, riots, search and rescue, etc.  For the railway sector, initial steps have been made in renovating bottlenecks and upgrading existing railway lines, such as  Hanoi -  Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi -  Hai Phong, Hanoi - Lao Cai...for effective exploitation to both ensure socio-economic development and strengthening national defence among strategic regions. In the maritime field,  the sector coordinates closely with coastal localities in investing in seaports and maritime routes to ensure the synchronisation of scale and demand for exploitation; build  Hai Phong international gateway port,  Cai Mep - Thi Vai port,  Da Nang  port, and Nghi Son port to form a continuous and solid system of Vietnamese seaports to serve as the places of trade among  areas, regions, and localities; international transit gateways and logistics and technical bases for forces of law enforcement and combat readiness to protect sovereignty, sovereign rights, and national jurisdiction at sea.  These are important orientations and goals for the sector to affirm its position and strive to fulfil the tasks assigned by the Party, State, and people.

Half a century has passed, but the pride for the important contributions to transport assurance in the 12 days and nights of the air defence operation to protect the airspace of the Capital and the North has always been a great motivation and source of spiritual encouragement for generations of cadres,  technicians, and workers of Vietnam's transport sector to uphold revolutionary heroism; strive for, actively contribute, and be proactive and creative in overcoming difficulties and challenges for constantly developing, effectively serving the socio-economic development,  national defence consolidation, and Fatherland protection, and contributing to realising the aspiration of building a strong and prosperous Vietnam.

NGUYEN DANH HUY, Deputy Minister of Transport