Original Item: Only One Available. Now this is an extremely rare item we have the pleasure of offering, and in excellent condition! This rock looking object, which was affectionately referred to as “monkey poop”, was a vital item in the CIA’s toolkit when it came to monitor enemy troop movements and chatter along the Ho Chi Minh trail. The Ho Chi Minh Trail (Vietnamese: Đường mòn Hồ Chí Minh), also called Annamite Range Trail, was a logistical network of roads and trails that ran from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through the kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia. The system provided support, in the form of manpower and materiel, to the Viet Cong (or "VC") and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), during the Vietnam War.

The CIA used motion detectors and listening devices all along the Ho Chi Minh Trail to watch for movement and disrupt Viet Cong supply lines to the south. It also helped U.S. military planners assess enemy location, movement, and strength. They could also develop strategies based on those assessments.

Placing the devices was another task altogether. Early on in the war, American planes dropped dummy bombs containing motion sensors into the areas on and around the trail. These bombs would have a long antenna attached that looked like jungle vegetation. Once dropped, they would embed themselves into the ground and blend into the local surroundings.

When motion was detected, the Americans would launch an airstrike. This tactic was probably successful in killing any number of animals who happened upon the area around one of the dummy trees watching for movement. So the CIA had to use listening devices to determine if the area was full of communist troops.

They still needed a way to disguise those listening devices. They needed the devices to look like something that would naturally be in the area while fitting the size necessary to fit the microphones and transmitters. It would also have been good to have something no VC would want to pick up. They settled on tiger poop and other types of feces.

If a passing unit of Viet Cong troops or a supply convoy happened by, the United States’ response would be the same: airstrike. Ground reconnaissance units dressed as locals entered the areas in and around the trail to plant the devices. These included seismic sensors that would send a signal if a truck drove by. Later, they used acoustic sensors to listen to what was happening nearby.

Small devices with a powerful radio signal meant that, once activated, they had just a couple days of battery life and would have to be picked up and/or replaced. But the listening devices weren’t a closely-held secret. The Viet Cong knew they were being spied on.

CIA reports document instances of VC fighters working to drain the batteries of the transmitters or fool them altogether. In one report, a Viet Cong truck driver drove his truck in circles around one device, mimicking the sounds of hundreds of vehicles moving south along the trail. In another case, a guerrilla was found playing the sounds of trucks driving from a recording device.

Most importantly, the VC knew what would happen if they were caught on the trail by an unknown listening device. Author Mark Bowden describes a recollection from one VC soldier in his book, “Hue 1968” that all Viet Cong knew that anything other than complete silence would result in an immense explosion that most would not survive.

This is an excellent example of one of the many devices used by the CIA. These devices are extremely difficult to come across and you are most likely not going to encounter another any time soon!

Comes more than ready for further research and display.

Specifications:
Measures approximately 2” x 1”