During Viet Nam's 3,000-year history, Vietnamese have employed bamboo as a major means in fighting foreign invaders. Bamboo weapons helped determine Vietnamese success in the thirteenth century battle against the Mongols on the Bach Dang River.
In 1789, Quang Trung's army marched to Thang Long (now Ha Nei) from Hud in record time because the soldiers traveled without stopping. They divided themselves into groups of three, with two members of each group carrying the third one, who slept in a hammock tied to bamboo shoulder poles. Quang Trung defeated the 200,000-strong invading army of the Qing Dynasty.
Between 1886 and 1887, Vietnamese patriots used bamboo walls and spikes at the Ba Dinh Fortress in Thanh Hoa Province to resist fierce French attacks.Vietnamese fought the French for nearly sixty years. In early 1945, the Japanese toppled the French colonial administration. In September 1945, He Chi Minh declared Viet Nam's independence in Ha Nei. However, the French were already landing in southern Viet Nam. Vietnamese guerrillas fought back with bamboo weapons, including bows and arrows, stakes, and traps. The war, which soon spread to the entire country, lasted nine years.
The collapse of the French stronghold at Dien Bien Phi] on 7 May 1954 shook the world, sounding the death knell for colonialism. Thousands of Vietnamese used bamboo shoulder poles to carry rice, salt, and weapons in bamboo baskets. They attached platforms to pack bicycles and pushed hundreds of kilos hundreds of kilometers to Dien Bien Phil. The Vietnamese used bamboo baskets as their earth-moving equipment when building roads. Vietnamese soldiers crossed rivers on bamboo barges. They used bamboo ladders to climb steep cliffs and then used bamboo ladders to cross the perimeter and enter the French base. Vietnamese immobilized broken bones with bamboo splints and carried their wounded on bamboo stretchers. The military band welcoming the Dien Bien Phil victory included forty bamboo flutes.
During the American War, Vietnamese patriots used the same techniques with bamboo on the H6 Chi Minh Trail. They shipped military supplies in bamboo sampans on the H6 Chi Minh Trail on the Sea.