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Operation Arc Light was the 1965 deployment of B-52D Stratofortresses as conventional bombers from bases in the US to Guam to support ground combat operations in Vietnam.<br/><br/> By extension, Arc Light, and sometimes Arclight, is the code name and general term for the use of B-52 Stratofortress as a close air support (CAS) platform to support ground tactical operations assisted by ground-control-radar detachments of the 1st Combat Evaluation Group (1CEVG) in Operation Combat SkySpot during the Vietnam War. At the same time, investigations of secret CIA activities in Laos revealed that B-52s were used to systematically bomb Laos and Cambodia. In fact, the United States dropped more bombs on Laos than it did during World War II on Germany and Japan combined. To this day, vast areas of Laos and Cambodia are uninhabitable because of unexploded ordnance.<br/><br/> In 1964, the U.S. Air Force began to train strategic bomber crews in the delivery of conventional munitions. Under Project Big Belly, all B-52Ds were modified so that they could carry nearly 30 tons of conventional bombs. B-52s were deployed to air force bases in Guam and Thailand. Arc Light operations were most often CAS bombing raids of enemy base camps, troops concentrations, and supply lines.<br/><br/> Missions were commonly flown in three-plane formations known as 'cells' and were also employed when ground units in heavy combat requested fire support. Releasing their bombs from high in the stratosphere, the B-52s could neither be seen nor heard from the ground. B-52s were instrumental in nearly wiping out enemy concentrations besieging Khe Sanh in 1968 and An Loc and Kontum in 1972.
The Ho Chi Minh trail was a logistical system that ran from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) through the neighboring kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia. The system provided support, in the form of manpower and materiel, to the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, or derogatively, Vietcong, and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), or North Vietnamese Army, during the Vietnam War (1955–1975).<br/><br/> The trail was not a single route, but rather a complex maze of truck routes, paths for foot and bicycle traffic, and river transportation systems. The name, taken from North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh, is of American origin. Although the trail was mostly in Laos, the communists called it the Truong Son Strategic Supply Route, after a mountain range in central Vietnam. According to the U.S. National Security Agency's official history of the war, the Trail system was 'one of the great achievements of military engineering of the 20th century'.