Road of 10,000 Pains

“Oh, yes,” a retired NVA officer matter-of-factly declared to former U.S. Marine Otto J. Lehrack. “In the Que Son Valley in 1967, we killed more Americans than at any time or place during the war.” Road of 10,000 Pains, which takes its name from The Iliad, is an epic oral history of Vietnam's bloodiest campaign, fought for seven months in a series of battles, most within four miles of each other, along Route 534. In October 1967, orders came down to the 2nd North Vietnamese Army Division commanding them to join with local Viet Cong units and seize the city of Da Nang in the coming Tet Offensive. When the time came, the division was so battered from its seven-month campaign in the Que Son Valley that it failed to carry out its mission. Only one platoon was to make it inside the city limits of Da Nang. Had it not been for the violent struggles in the valley, Da Nang may have suffered the same fate as the city of Hue.