The road was named after American General 'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell by nationalist China leader Chiang Kai-shek to honour his determination to find a faster way to get more military supplies from India to Chinese troops in Kunming.
Allied forces had been hampered after Japanese troops seized the Burma Road, and were forced to transport supplies to their Chinese allies by air over the Himalayan mountains. US Army engineers started work on the 478 mile road from Ledo in Assam (now in Arunachal Pradesh), India, to Mogaung in Burma in 1942.
With the help of Chinese troops, they cut through the high Pangsau Pass as an alternative route to Burma at Mu-se in January 1945.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...build-Burmas-World-War-Two-Stilwell-Road.html