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45 miles north west of Ho-Chi-Minh is the town of Cu Chi,
one of the most famous battlegrounds of the Vietnam war.
It is here between the early 1940’s and mid 60’s
that the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong built the main
sections of tunnels that became a vital catalyst in their
victory over the Americans and South Vietnamese. It is also
claimed to be the most bombed and devastated area in the history
of warfare after the Americans used all their firepower to
destroy them.
Despite becoming a heavy and sometimes comical tourist destination,
full of westerners looking for their own “Nam” experience,
these tunnels really are fascinating to visit. At their height
during the war they stretched from Ho-Chi-Minh right to the
border with Cambodia in the west. At Cu Chi alone there were
250 km of tunnels.
These places as better described as underground towns rather
than just tunnels. The network reached several stories deep
and housed up to 10,000 people who rarely saw daylight for
years, coming out only at night to tend to their crops. The
tunnels included first aid posts, storage rooms for weapons
and food, kitchens, dorms and even classrooms and small theatres.
Countless couples were married and had children underground.
What makes the tunnels even more amazing is that they were
dug with hand tools and yet had primitive technologies like
underwater trap doors and vents to disperse cooking smoke.
After building a base camp unwittingly right on top of these
tunnels, the Americans became aware of them and tried to figure
out how they could be destroyed. Special volunteer soldiers
selected for their bravery were used as “tunnel rats”,
armed with only a knife and a pistol for hand to hand combat.
Because of the tunnels’ formidable defences the American
casualties were too high and so the bombing started.
The Vietnamese showed incredible resilience to survive in
these cramped and humid conditions, especially as they continued
to suffer horrific casualties. Less than half of the 16,000
people who fought in the tunnels survived and thousands of
their relatives were killed in the area.
Visiting Cu Chi
Today two sections of the tunnels are open to the public.
The Ben Binh tunnels remain unlit and unreconstructed, making
it difficult for larger westerners to negotiate. The Ben Duoc
tunnels, however, are renovated and it is here that you can
see bunkers, hospitals, kitchens, and trap doors plus the
actual command room where the Tet Offensive was planned. |
