Quang Trí, city in central Vietnam, the major city of Quang Trí Province. Quang Trí lies near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), an area that separated North and South Vietnam after Vietnam was partitioned at the end of the First Indochina War in 1954. The DMZ was intended to be an area free of arms. However, during the ensuing Vietnam War (1959-1975), the area around the DMZ was so thoroughly devastated by fighting that the city still bears the effects. The people of Quang Trí are poor, in large part because many farmers cannot use their land for fear of uncleared land mines. The farming that does exist is almost wholly for subsistence. Much of the surrounding land was deforested during the war by carpet bombing and chemical agents; these chemicals have caused a sharp decline in soil fertility. In addition, many people suffer from war-related injuries and postwar injuries caused by exploding mines. De-mining and reforestation programs, undertaken by local and overseas volunteers, are underway. The city is located on one of Vietnam's main north-south highways and is served by buses. Few historical sites remain in Quang Trí, but a moat, rampart, and gates from The Citadel that once dominated the city still exist. During the Vietnam War Quang Tri was the site of several fierce battles, in particular the Easter Offensive of 1972. After North Vietnamese troops took the area, the Province was bombed daily by as many as 40 US bombers, each carrying several tons of bombs. South Vietnamese forces eventually regained the city but lost at least 5000 troops in the process. Quang Tri Province was the scene of some of the fiercest ground fighting of the American war, especially from 1966 to the end of the war in 1975, and it was subjected to the heaviest bombing campaign in the history of the world, more than the amount of ordnance used in Europe during World War II. At the war’s end in 1975, the entire province was devastated, and most of the population had evacuated. Quang Tri Town, at that time the Province capital and Dong Ha Town were both destroyed. Not a single building remained standing or useable. Of 3,500 villages scattered throughout the province, only 11 remained at the end of the war. The intense bombing, combined with U.S. use of the Agent Orange defoliant, turned the land into a virtual moonscape with only a fraction of the original triple canopy jungle forest remaining after the war.