7 Feburary, 2024

Hi everyone,

Today we got an early start to get to the Cu Chi tunnels, a network of underground tunnels created and used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, which is known as the American war in Vietnam.

The tunnels provided a space to hide or mount surprise attacks during combat, make weaponry, and manufacture shoes from rubber tires, as well as a means to transport weapons, food, medical supplies, and even living quarters. For example, if the American troops engaged the Viet Cong in combat in the forest, the latter would suddenly disappear into the tunnels and emerge behind the troops, mounting a surprise attack from behind. 

The tunnels usually had three levels: 3 meters, 6 meters, and 12 meters deep, with each type of “room” at a different level. The kitchens in the tunnels had four connected smaller chambers gradually closer to the ground surface so that most of the smoke was absorbed by the soil and only a tiny amount of steam was visible at the surface. They also created fake termite mounds as a means of hiding air holes.

Essential to the tunnel’s efficacy was secrecy. Each village had one commander, who was the only person who knew the whole network in that area. Their identity was kept hidden by wearing a face covering so that no captured Viet Cong could provide much information to the Americans and South Vietnamese.

Entrances were not much bigger than a piece of paper, designed for the smaller Vietnamese people but difficult or impossible for most of the American soldiers to fit through. Consequently, once the tunnels were discovered, thinner men were recruited as “tunnel rats.” They would be handed a handgun and a flashlight and sent down alone to see if they could find the enemy. When they got as far as they could, they would be pulled out (we didn’t hear how, but presumably by a rope).

Tunnel widened for visitors: 

The Viet Cong made some of their shoes so that the sole faced backward, confusing American troops as to the direction they were walking. They also created IEDs using unexploded fragmentation grenades used by the Americans by grouping them together and burying them just under the surface. They melted down fragments of bombs dropped by Americans to manufacture crude but effective traps with metal spikes designed to cause maximum damage to essential organs.

Seeing the tunnels and walking around the forest gave us a better understanding of how challenging the conditions were for American troops.

After the first tunnel was discovered, the Viet Cong used several tactics to defend them, including laying fake entrances with explosive devices that went off when the “door” was opened, and speaking in whispers so that troops using stethoscopes to find them couldn’t hear them.

When the seventeenth parallel was established to create a North and South Vietnam, the Vietnamese were given 300 days to move to the respective side they preferred to live in (north being communist and backed by China and Russia, south being “democratic” and backed by the US). However, many of the farmers in the south could not afford to move and still backed the north.

Yesterday and today, our local guide, Bien, told us a bit about his family and their experience during the war. Bien’s family lived in Saigon, and his father worked in a hospital. They had to evacuate to the hospital twice – once in 1968 during the Tet Offensive and again in 1975 during the capture of Saigon by the North. During one of these evacuations, Bien and his brother stepped out of a more fortified room into the hallway and a bullet came within inches of his face.

He also recalls interacting with the American GIs, who would draw watches on the children’s wrists.

After the fall of Saigon, Bien’s father lost his pension, and his sister, who had worked for the Saigon police, was sent to a “reeducation” camp for two years. As a true communist government, the country was closed to trade except with a couple of other communist countries. Consequently, the economy collapsed. The government paid farmers next to nothing for their produce so they were not making a profit. Each family was given 13 kg of rice per month. His mother sold off a lot of their property (furniture, radios, etc) illegally. These items were largely imported for the northern Vietnamese who, up until the end of the war, had been very poor. While Bien was in college, they received little in the way of food – mostly sorghum.

Despite all that his family has been through, Bien was warm and friendly and seemed to appreciate the opportunity to share his stories. We were grateful to have a local guide who was so generous with his knowledge and experience.

The bus ride back into town was a chance to digest what we’d learned over the past couple of days and enjoy the sights. Once we got back, we went for a long walk, including a stop at the Bitexco Tower to view the city from the 49th floor.

It reminded us of a certain other tower:

Lots of love,

Sarah & Spenser