During the Vietnam War, it was the mission of the US Army Transportation Corps to ferry supplies from the coastal ports of Qui Nhon and Cam Ranh Bay to inland bases located at Bong Son, An Khe, Pleiku, Da Lat, and Buon Ma Thuot.
The town sits at the junction of several national roads—National Road 14 to Kon Tum in the north and Buôn Ma Thuột in the south and National Road 19 to Stœng Trêng in Cambodia in the west (via Ratanakiri Province) and to Bình Định Province in the east.