Vinh Linh is a northern district of Quang Tri province, with east side bordered by East sea , Huong Hoa district on the west; Gio Linh districts on the south and Le Thuy district (Quang Binh) on the north. The district has population of 91,000 people including 2,175 Van Kieu ethnic residents. The 17th parallel in Vinh Linh running along Ben Hai river, which used to be considered as provisional military demarcation line between South-North part of Vietnam.
In the war destroying Vinh Linh carried by US Air and Naval Force, each citizen of Vinh Linh suffered 7 tons of bombs; about 12 124 people were killed (including 5581 civilians); 10,097 was wounded; 1,713 people are infected with toxic chemicals sprayed by the US army to the land. To limit casualties to a minimum, firmly stick to villages for producing and providing facilities for the resistant war, Vinh Linh people had dug roughly 114 tunnels which was between 8 and 23 metres deep, especially the Vinh Moc tunnels was 1.701m long, hundreds of kilometres of communication trench, coordinated with the armed forces to shot down 293 crafts ranging among different types including 7 B52 aircrafts , set on fire and send to bottom 69 ships, including New Jersey ship weighted 100,000 tonnages.
Step out of the war, Vinh Linh residents only have empty hands and a motherland filled with bomb craters. The entire facility which Vinh Linh people had built up through decades was completely destroyed by bombs. In the period 1975- 1985, overcome numerous difficulties and challenges, local economy was quickly recovering to enter the homeland renovation period. By this time it can be said that Vinh Linh town was still poor and had to strive against many huddles compared to the country as a whole, but considering the starting point as zero, Vinh Linh has made considerable improvement since then.
Area: 620 km2 (62.000 ha)
Population: 91.000 (năm 2006)
Administrative division: consists of 3 town of Ho Xa, Ben Quan, Cua Tung and 19 communes.
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